Chapter Summaries

Xu Bai and Wu Hua reunited and traveled together to Soaring Cloud Prefecture, where the Gao Family had mysteriously disappeared. After finding clues in a hurried letter from the family, they reached the empty Gao residence, and Xu Bai began divining for evidence.

• Xu Bai reunited with Wu Hua and agreed to travel with him to Soaring Cloud Prefecture, where Wu Hua was investigating the Gao Family's disappearance.
• Xu Bai divined that the case was connected to the people trying to assassinate him, and Wu Hua explained that the Gao Family had vanished overnight, leaving bloodstains behind.
• Xu Bai and Wu Hua sheltered from a storm in a ruined temple, where they learned that the Gao Family had summoned jianghu acquaintances to Soaring Cloud Prefecture.
• Wu Hua told the gathered martial wanderers that the Gao Family had disappeared, and Xu Bai noticed that their letter had been written in a panic.
• The martial wanderers recognized Xu Bai as the Blood Slaughtering Saber Wielder and left rather than risk becoming involved.
• Xu Bai and Wu Hua arrived at the empty Gao residence, and Xu Bai summoned his golden compass to search for clues.

Xu Bai followed the Feng Shui Calculation Scripture’s clues from the abandoned Gao Family manor to a secluded village, where he and his companions uncovered the Gu God Sect’s involvement. While they watched a villager drawn into the night by a strange sound, a corpse emerged from a tree and a woman appeared above it.

• Xu Bai destroyed a tree in the Gao Family manor and revealed the Gao Family head’s corpse, then found more than a hundred bodies buried beneath it.
• The corpses turned to ash as insects burst from the pit, and Wu Hua and Ye Zi identified the insects as belonging to the Gu God Sect.
• Xu Bai used the insects’ remains to divine a direction and led Wu Hua and Ye Zi out of Soaring Cloud Prefecture to a silent village.
• Xu Bai’s group waited in the village pavilion, then followed a villager who had been drawn out by a sound that could affect the soul.
• The villager reached a large tree, where a female corpse emerged from its trunk as bell chimes rang and Xu Bai spotted a woman among the branches.

Xu Bai and his companions encountered Miao Xiao, a Miao Sect Gu user hunting her cousin Miao Zheng, who had defected to the Gu God Sect with a Golden Silk Gu. After discovering that the villagers carried Gu insects, Xu Bai stayed in the village to investigate why its residents were acting strangely.

• Xu Bai subdued Miao Xiao after she attacked, and Wu Hua identified the group as members of the Bureau of Surveillance rather than the Gu God Sect.
• Miao Xiao proved her Miao Sect identity with a Golden Silk Gu and explained that her cousin Miao Zheng had joined the Gu God Sect and taken one of the sect’s Golden Silk Gu.
• Miao Xiao recognized Xu Bai as an admired figure among young members of the Miao Sect, then discovered that a Gu insect inside the unconscious villager had been controlling him.
• Xu Bai and his companions returned to the village and decided to leave the villagers’ Gu insects in place so they could observe the Gu God Sect’s plan.
• The following morning, the old man tried to send Xu Bai and his companions away, but Xu Bai refused and suspected the villagers would reveal a clue that night.

Xu Bai uncovered the villagers’ brutal abuse of a wounded Corpse Collector and had them killed, then confronted Miao Zheng, who unleashed a vast swarm of Gu insects. The swarm besieged Xu Bai and Wu Hua while leaving Ye Zi’s group untouched, and Xu Bai noticed the suspicious pattern as the battle continued.

• The village elder led the villagers in an attempt to seize Xu Bai and his companions, but Miao Xiao’s Gu insects knocked them unconscious.
• The elder told Xu Bai that villagers had abused and imprisoned a wounded woman from the Corpse-Collecting Lineage after she saved the village from bandits.
• Xu Bai freed the woman, learned from the elder that every adult villager had participated, and ordered the Fourth-Rank Puppet to kill the villagers before making the elder die by the woman’s hand.
• Miao Zheng appeared as a face formed from Gu insects, claimed he used the villagers’ corpses to raise Gu, and declared he would kill Xu Bai to obtain the Golden Silk Gu.
• Miao Zheng sent a massive swarm of Gu insects against Xu Bai and Wu Hua, while Ye Zi, Miao Xiao, and the others remained untouched; Xu Bai noticed that no insects approached Ye Zi’s position.

Xu Bai uncovered the Gu God Sect’s plot to frame the Corpse Collectors and learned that a larger scheme targeting him would unfold in Soaring Cloud Prefecture. After the sect poisoned civilians and staged a diversion, Xu Bai rushed back to the Prefectural Office, where a disguised man destroyed a book and killed himself.

• Xu Bai used the hollow-eyed woman to repel the gu insects, then defeated Miao Zheng and forced him to confess that the Gu God Sect had arranged her suffering to provoke conflict with the Corpse Collectors.
• Miao Zheng revealed that the sect’s next scheme would target Xu Bai in Soaring Cloud Prefecture the following day and might involve a mark connected to Wind Chime Prefecture; Xu Bai killed him and went to warn Prefectural Governor Ying.
• Xu Bai asked Ying Qi to care for the woman and prepare for the Gu God Sect’s attack, then stayed overnight at the Prefectural Office with Ye Zi, Wu Hua, and Miao Xiao.
• The next morning, civilians across Soaring Cloud Prefecture suffered from gu poison in their food and water, and Miao Xiao used her Golden Silk Gu to identify a cure.
• Xu Bai divined that the attack pointed toward the Prefectural Office and hurried back, where he saw a disguised man destroy a book with a gu insect and stab himself to avoid being tortured.

Xu Bai uncovered that the Prefectural Commander of Ying was connected to the Gu God Sect’s theft of a book from the Prefectural Office. After the Corpse Collector woman recovered her memories and identified the stolen book, Xu Bai confirmed his suspicion and attacked the Prefectural Commander of Ying.

• A Gu God Sect agent destroyed the evidence and killed himself, leaving Xu Bai unable to trace the sect with his golden compass.
• Lord Ying could not identify the missing book, so Xu Bai brought the recovered Corpse Collector woman to examine the agent’s corpse.
• The woman restored the corpse and regained her memories, then told Xu Bai that the agent had stolen the Soaring Cloud Prefecture Poetry Collection.
• Xu Bai doubted the Prefectural Commander of Ying, secretly used his golden compass to confirm the connection, and assigned his companions tasks.
• The Prefectural Commander of Ying privately admitted his involvement with the Gu God Sect and worried about Xu Bai uncovering the truth.
• Xu Bai entered the Prefectural Commander of Ying’s room under the pretense of sharing a discovery, then struck him with a black blade.

Xu Bai uncovered Lord Ying’s role in the Gu God Sect’s scheme and killed him before leading his companions to Cracked Cloud Valley. There, the sect used a vast swarm of Gu insects to activate the Li Fire Altar and targeted Chen Ting with a deadly flame, which Xu Bai leapt up to intercept.

• Xu Bai and Wu Hua forced Lord Ying to take an interrogation pill, and Lord Ying revealed the Gu God Sect’s plan to draw the region into the Human-Strange Entity Market and the Li Fire Altar’s location in Cracked Cloud Valley.
• Lord Ying confessed that the Gu God Sect was blackmailing him over his murder of a young woman, and Xu Bai killed him after Wu Hua confirmed the Bureau of Surveillance could act on the confession.
• Chen Ting joined Xu Bai, Wu Hua, Ye Zi, and Miao Xiao as they entered Cracked Cloud Valley, where hundreds of Gu God Sect members ambushed them with a massive swarm of Gu insects.
• Xu Bai noticed the Gu insects and their ashes were forming the Li Fire Altar’s pattern, and he realized Chen Ting was in danger as the altar’s sacrifice.
• The Gu God Sect sent an emerald-green flame toward Chen Ting, and Xu Bai leapt into its path, vowing not to let her die.

Xu Bai defeated the Li Fire Altar’s flames, then followed Chen Ting into the Human-Strange Entity Market to stop her from sacrificing Soaring Cloud Prefecture. After resisting the market’s soul-wrecking effects, he found a ruined city and a circular platform that might lead him out, but still needed a city lord’s token.

• Xu Bai combined Wu Hua’s Buddhist light, Ye Zi’s music, and Miao Xiao’s Golden Silk Gu to destroy the Li Fire Altar’s green flames.
• Chen Ting regained her memories, revealed that she had planned to devour the Golden Silk Gu, and became a Transcendent who killed the Gu God Sect leader and remnants.
• Xu Bai learned that the Gu God Sect planned to use his Demon-Strange Entity Market mark and the Li Fire Altar to drag Soaring Cloud Prefecture into the Human-Strange Entity Market.
• Xu Bai used the Water Adaptation Method and the remnants’ flesh-and-blood power to pull himself and Chen Ting into the Human-Strange Entity Market.
• Xu Bai endured the market’s soul attack with Little Gold’s help, killed Chen Ting, and used the Feng Shui Calculation Scripture to find a ruined city.
• Xu Bai found a circular platform in the ruined city, but realized he needed a city lord’s token to activate it just as an abnormality appeared.

Xu Bai escaped the Human-Strange Entity Market with a token, but Liu Qingfeng followed him out before the Female Daoist Abbot intervened and defeated him. After freeing Xu Bai and offering him a Sun and Moon Daoist Robe, she proposed a deal for him to use his ability again, and Xu Bai demanded extra payment.

• Xu Bai watched Liu Qingfeng battle a group of strange entities, then seized a fallen token and used it to escape the market.
• Liu Qingfeng followed Xu Bai through the circular platform, but the Female Daoist Abbot arrived and fought him while Xu Bai tried to flee.
• The Female Daoist Abbot restrained Xu Bai with a jade pendant, defeated Liu Qingfeng, and returned to him after Liu Qingfeng escaped.
• The Female Daoist Abbot gave Xu Bai a Daoist robe, removed the pendant, and proposed a deal to have him use his ability again.
• Xu Bai recognized what she wanted and told her it would cost extra.

Xu Bai discovered that pain suffered in the Human-Strange Entity Market and the Demon-Strange Entity Market had strengthened his Golden Finger, speeding up his progress bars. After gaining two powerful fused skills, he stayed in Soaring Cloud Prefecture to grind his remaining Nameless Saber Scriptures while Ye Zi left for the Capital City with Wu Hua and Miao Xiao.

• The Female Daoist Abbot carved Xu Bai a wooden figure, helped him test Grafting Flowers onto Trees, and left after warning him to beware powerful older opponents.
• Xu Bai returned to Soaring Cloud Prefecture, reunited with Ye Zi, Wu Hua, and Miao Xiao, and found that his Heavy Sword Method progress bar had sped up.
• Xu Bai concluded that the soul-devouring pain he had endured in the Human-Strange Entity Market and the Demon-Strange Entity Market had triggered his Golden Finger to grow stronger.
• Xu Bai completed the Heavy Sword Method and the wooden figure's progress bars, fusing his skills into Five Styles of the Swordless Saber and Moving Stars and Changing Constellations.
• Wu Hua and Miao Xiao prepared to leave for the Capital City, and Xu Bai sent Ye Zi with them while he stayed behind to grind his fifteen remaining Nameless Saber Scriptures.
• Stories of Xu Bai's battle with the Gu God Sect spread through the martial world as he continued grinding in Soaring Cloud Prefecture for several days.

Xu Bai reached First Rank after mastering all fifteen Nameless Saber Scriptures and left Soaring Cloud Prefecture for the Capital City. Near the capital, he slaughtered a vast coalition of Jianghu fighters, then entered the city and was immediately challenged by a young man from the Yin Yang Arts Liu Family.

• Xu Bai advanced to First Rank, strengthened his skills, and glimpsed a chaotic Heavenly Change through the Swordless Saber Grand Technique.
• Xu Bai left Soaring Cloud Prefecture and learned that Jianghu fighters were gathering to intercept him on the road to the Capital City.
• Xu Bai faced several thousand fighters at a mountain pass and killed them with the Swordless Saber Grand Technique and his other skills.
• Xu Bai arrived at the Capital City, where Ye Zi, Liu Xu, Qin Feng, and Lin Ming were waiting near the northern gate.
• A young man from the Yin Yang Arts Liu Family blocked Xu Bai and requested guidance from the Blood Slaughtering Saber Wielder.

Xu Bai entered the Capital City, met old companions, and was summoned by the Chu Emperor, who granted him access to the Imperial Treasury while preparing to purge corrupt officials. Xu Bai reached the Treasury with Ye Zi, where its powerful elderly guardian invited him to talk.

• Xu Bai struck down a man who challenged him with the title Blood Slaughtering Saber Wielder, and the gate soldiers let him go unchallenged.
• Ye Zi and Liu Xu reunited with Xu Bai, while Lin Ming conceded his challenge after sensing Xu Bai's strength.
• Eunuch Wei welcomed Xu Bai on the Chu Emperor's orders and revealed that he had injured Liu Qingfeng before escorting Xu Bai into the palace.
• The Chu Emperor offered Xu Bai access to fourth-rank and first-rank books, and Xu Bai advised him to uproot the corruption revealed by the investigation.
• The Chu Emperor ordered Eunuch Wei and the Dark Guard to eliminate the corrupt officials within a month, then arranged for Xu Bai to stay in the palace and read in the Imperial Treasury.
• Xu Bai arrived at the Imperial Treasury with Ye Zi, and its elderly guardian invited him to chat after the Dark Guard member left.

Xu Bai cultivated in the Imperial Treasury for ten days and reached the Transcendent Realm, awakening a chaotic Heavenly Change and greatly strengthening his techniques. As he challenged Eunuch Wei to test his new power, Eunuch Wei sensed that Xu Bai’s slash contained his own profession.

• The Heavenly Sound Master recognized Ye Zi’s musical talent and accepted her as a disciple, promising to teach her for one year while Xu Bai went upstairs to cultivate.
• The Heavenly Sound Master and Ye Zi witnessed Xu Bai’s chaotic Heavenly Change overwhelm a Dark Guard, and Eunuch Wei admitted that Xu Bai’s talent surpassed his own.
• Xu Bai completed the progress bars for the books on the sixth floor, reached Transcendent Realm, and gained the Myriad Aspects Heavenly Art and Thousand Faces Method.
• The Ninth Princess decided to befriend Xu Bai rather than recruit him, while the Sixth Prince prepared a banquet to bring Xu Bai into his grasp and the Seventh Prince chose to wait before acting.
• Eunuch Wei offered to spar with Xu Bai, and Xu Bai unleashed a full-power slash whose Heavenly Change caused Eunuch Wei to realize it contained his profession.

Xu Bai learned that Emperor Great Chu wanted him to deal with the arrogant Seventh Prince while he waited for his reward, and he heard Eunuch Wei’s account of the prince’s mother, the Sword Empress. The Ninth Princess recruited Xu Bai with money and a rare manual, and he agreed to stay neutral in the imperial family’s struggle before asking what they were fighting over while the emperor was still healthy.

• Xu Bai tested his strength against Eunuch Wei, learned Eunuch Wei was an Extraordinary Rank 9 Yin Eunuch, and returned to his residence to wait out the remaining twenty days.
• Eunuch Wei told Xu Bai about the Sword Empress and suggested the emperor would welcome him dealing with the Seventh Prince, with a satisfactory reward to follow.
• Zhou Qing invited Xu Bai to join the Sixth Prince’s household, but Xu Bai refused after Qing Xue reminded Zhou Qing that they had once been companions.
• The Ninth Princess offered Xu Bai money and the True Explanation of Mechanisms in exchange for his neutrality, while reserving the right to hire his help herself.
• Xu Bai accepted the Ninth Princess’s proposal for the time being, then asked why the imperial family was contending while the emperor remained in his prime.

Xu Bai learned that the royal siblings were competing to earn favorable fiefdoms, while the Prime Minister and Seventh Prince became involved in a plot to test him with Everlasting Righteousness. After advancing his mechanism skills, Xu Bai rejected the Seventh Prince’s sudden gift visit, suspecting a hidden motive.

• The Ninth Princess told Xu Bai that the Emperor planned to enfeoff his children as kings, and she sought his cooperation while warning him about the Prime Minister.
• The Seventh Prince probed Xu Bai’s strength, then agreed to Wen Chengshu’s plan to test him with a mirror containing the Prime Minister’s Everlasting Righteousness.
• The Chu Emperor revealed that the test was part of a wager meant to assess Xu Bai, restrain the Prime Minister, and use up the Seventh Prince’s protection from the Sword Empress’s blessing.
• Xu Bai fused the True Explanation of Mechanisms with the Mechanism Puppet Technique, creating the Tier 9 Mechanism Puppet True Explanation, and decided to gather materials for a First Rank puppet and saber.
• The Ninth Princess agreed to provide Xu Bai with the materials he needed, and he returned to his residence.
• The Seventh Prince arrived with gift boxes, but Xu Bai claimed he had caught a chill and shut the door on him.

Seventh Prince tried to use a mirror containing Prime Minister Wen’s Everlasting Righteousness against Xu Bai, but the attempt exposed Xu Bai’s extraordinary Righteous Qi and led to Xu Bai beating the prince into a change of heart. Wen Chengshu then reported Xu Bai’s talent to Prime Minister Wen, while Xu Bai’s preparations continued until Eunuch Wei brought him an unexpected letter from the Emperor.

• Seventh Prince left a mirror at Xu Bai’s door, then flashed it at Xu Bai when he finally opened the door, but Xu Bai snatched it away and kicked him aside.
• Wen Chengshu explained that the mirror had already been triggered, and the light it released vanished without affecting Xu Bai; he then used Everlasting Righteousness to uncover scholarly maxims in Xu Bai’s subconscious.
• Xu Bai caught Wen Chengshu and Seventh Prince watching him, beat the prince and his attendants, and told Seventh Prince that he had not disgraced the Sword Empress before sending him away.
• Xu Bai slapped Wen Chengshu for arranging the scheme, and Wen Chengshu later told Prime Minister Wen about Xu Bai’s talent and the words he had discovered.
• Prime Minister Wen explained that he accepted the Emperor’s reforms as controlled trials, then Wen Chengshu left without further interference in Xu Bai’s affairs.
• More than ten days later, Xu Bai had upgraded his puppet and Hundred Rifts to first-rank; Eunuch Wei visited and gave him a letter from the Emperor, prompting Xu Bai to ask what it meant.

Eunuch Wei revealed that the Chu Emperor planned to make Xu Bai King Xu, granting him authority to investigate and execute guilty kings without a fief. After Xu Bai carried out a bloody purge and questioned the Emperor about the rushed enfeoffment plan, he learned it was meant to help Great Chu unify the world and enter the Strange Entity Market; at court, King Chen challenged Xu Bai’s appointment until an unseen person hurled an egg at him.

• Eunuch Wei told Xu Bai that the Chu Emperor would grant him a fief-less kingship with authority to inspect and execute guilty kings, and Xu Bai agreed to act against the named enemies that night.
• Xu Bai killed the people who had backed the attempted attack on him, then met the Chu Emperor and learned that unifying the world would allow Great Chu to enter the Strange Entity Market and remove a threat within it.
• The Chu Emperor resolved to enfeoff Xu Bai as King Xu and ordered Eunuch Wei to announce the plan at court two days later.
• At court, the decree gave Xu Bai authority over the other kings, prompting King Chen and another newly enfeoffed king to object; Xu Bai answered by listing his achievements, including killing 212 rebel spies in one night.
• King Chen insisted Xu Bai’s achievements were still insufficient, and an unseen person threw an egg at him from outside the hall and demanded to know whether it was enough.

The Rising Dusk King helped Xu Bai secure his enfeoffment as King Xu, then urged him to look beyond Great Chu as tensions with Great Yue and the barbarians grew. After leaving the Capital City and becoming famous throughout the martial world, Xu Bai gathered gains on his journey and arrived at Jiangnan Province, where he noticed something unusual at the city gates.

• The Rising Dusk King stopped the officials from challenging Xu Bai’s reward, and Prime Minister Wen defended Xu Bai’s ability to bear the responsibility.
• The Rising Dusk King offered Xu Bai a place in the army and marriage to Chu Yu, but Xu Bai chose to remain King Xu and heard that war with Great Yue and the barbarians might eventually come.
• The Rising Dusk King urged Xu Bai to broaden his ambitions beyond Great Chu, and Xu Bai agreed to meet the other realms if the opportunity arose.
• Xu Bai visited Ye Zi, spent the night with her, and left the Imperial Palace after Eunuch Wei gave him his King Xu token and cautioned him about Great Yue and the barbarians.
• News of Xu Bai’s victories and enfeoffment spread through the martial world; after a teahouse crowd recognized him, he fled and continued gathering gains at princely estates.
• Xu Bai reached Jiangnan Province with his skills advanced to the Second Rank of the Transcendent Realm, then noticed something unusual at the city gates.

Xu Bai uncovered an assassin who used a blood-patterned dagger, then reunited with Liu Xu at Azure Cloud Academy and learned about sinister scholars. As a sudden explosion shook the academy and the dagger flared red, Xu Bai’s meeting with Liu Xu was interrupted.

• Xu Bai followed an impoverished scholar to his home, exposed his plan to assassinate him, and discovered a dagger whose markings could threaten him.
• Xu Bai reached Azure Cloud Academy, identified himself to a scholar as Prince Xu, and found Liu Xu in her room.
• Xu Bai teased Liu Xu about her secret book before they shared food and wine and discussed the dagger and the scholars who read wicked books.
• Liu Xu told Xu Bai that the Dean had wanted to meet him and gave him the Dean’s travel journal, which had a slowly advancing golden progress bar.
• A tremendous boom sounded outside, and the scroll held by the First-Grade Puppet blazed with red light.

Xu Bai investigated a blood-red attack on the Academy Dean’s statue and uncovered a plot to use him as a vessel, but the culprit remained hidden. After the Academy Dean arrived with the injured Yun Zihai, Xu Bai recognized his friend and the chapter ended with their reunion poised to begin.

• Xu Bai destroyed a blood-marked dagger, then joined Wang Qingfeng and Liu Xu at the cracked, bleeding statue of the Academy Dean.
• The statue broke apart to reveal Long Fu, whose blood-red beams attacked Xu Bai before he deflected them and questioned the scholars.
• Xu Bai used soul control to learn that the scholar’s disciple had acted without his knowledge, then agreed to let the Academy investigate.
• Zhuge Wen met a shadow who planned to make Xu Bai a vessel, but the shadow killed Zhuge Wen after he resisted.
• Xu Bai spent several days grinding the travel journal’s progress bar while the Academy failed to find Zhuge Wen or any clues.
• The Academy Dean arrived with an injured young man, and Xu Bai recognized Yun Zihai on the stretcher.