Chapter Summaries

Xiang Yuan faced a challenge from the Feng Clan’s Fourth Branch while Wang Mifeng and Wang Yunxi watched, hoping to use the clan crisis to their advantage. After revealing and then destroying Feng Jiahe’s will, Xiang Yuan challenged four Spirit Transformation experts to fight him together and agreed to settle the dispute with swords.

• Feng Wenyu told Xiang Yuan that the Wang Clan, led by Wang Mifeng and accompanied by Wang Yunxi, had come to the Feng residence.
• Feng Wenyuan alerted Xiang Yuan that the Fourth Branch had gathered four Spirit Transformation sons-in-law and a large force at the martial arts platform.
• Xiang Yuan displayed Feng Jiahe’s will naming him heir, then shattered it and declared that he would prove his claim by defeating his opponents.
• Xiang Yuan insulted the Fourth Branch’s leaders and challenged all four Spirit Transformation experts to attack him together.
• Ma Yu proposed a swordsmanship contest, and Xiang Yuan drew the Mad Beauty Sword and accepted, warning that the fight could be fatal.

Xiang Yuan defeated Ma Yu, Yang Huai, Kong Yishan, and Shi Chenghui in a swordsmanship challenge, claimed their magical swords, and established himself as the Feng Clan Patriarch. That night, Feng Jiahe warned him that Wang Mifeng and Wang Yunxi’s unexpected visit might threaten the Feng Clan, leaving Xiang Yuan suspicious of both the Wangs and his own family’s situation.

• Xiang Yuan overwhelmed Ma Yu and the other three Spirit Transformation cultivators with Autumn Wind Falling Leaves Sword, then provoked them into drawing their magical swords.
• Xiang Yuan used the Ancestor Peace Sword Art to defeat the four challengers, seize their magical swords, and claim victory as Patriarch; he demanded that the clan elders hand over seventy percent of their skimmed wealth.
• Wang Mifeng refused to let Wang Yunxi join the fight, warning that the Fourth Branch could challenge Xiang Yuan’s victory and that Xiang Yuan might attack her.
• Xiang Yuan visited Feng Jiahe in the mourning hall and asked why Wang Mifeng and Wang Yunxi had stayed at the Feng Residence.
• Feng Jiahe urged Xiang Yuan to question Wang Yunxi or drive the Wangs out of Wild Goose Peak City, saying their visit likely endangered the Feng Clan; Xiang Yuan wondered what was wrong with the Feng family.

After taking control of the Feng Clan and discovering Wild Goose Peak City’s accounts had been drained, Xiang Yuan attended Feng Jiahe’s funeral and uncovered a hidden cave-heaven beneath the ancestral mausoleum. He realized the real Feng Jiahe was dead, entered the pocket realm, and began reshaping it as the Sky Chasm Swordmaster and the Wang Clan pursued him.

• Xiang Yuan found Wild Goose Peak City’s taxes had been collected thirty years in advance, abandoned the City Lord’s Manor, and took money from the four Feng branches.
• Wang Yunxi visited Xiang Yuan, then told Wang Mifeng that he had ignored her; the two planned to enter the Feng Clan’s ancestral grounds during Feng Jiahe’s burial.
• At the funeral, a passage opened beneath the altar, and Xiang Yuan followed Feng Jiahe’s coffin into the mausoleum while Wang Mifeng secretly brought Wang Yunxi along after him.
• Xiang Yuan opened Feng Jiahe’s coffin, discovered he was dead, and realized someone else had impersonated him; he then entered the hidden cave-heaven and began reshaping it with his sword.
• The Sky Chasm Swordmaster entered the cave-heaven with Wang Mifeng and Wang Yunxi, mistook Xiang Yuan’s demonic qi for Feng Jiahe’s, and headed toward the Vertical Wall Heavenly Pillar.

Xiang Yuan explored a ruined Heavenly Court palace and discovered an altar tied to the Feng Clan, then maneuvered the Wang Clan into taking the family head’s seal while Feng Jiahe fought the Heavenly Chasm Sword Master. As the battle intensified, Xiang Yuan recognized Feng Jiahe’s techniques as belonging to the Xiao Clan and suspected the Tomb-Keeping Sect had robbed an imperial mausoleum.

• Xiang Yuan entered the ruined palace, read its murals, and inferred that it had once belonged to a Heavenly Court corrupted by demons.
• Xiang Yuan found an altar that required Feng ancestral blood and the family head’s seal, then called out the hidden Feng Jiahe.
• Xiang Yuan gave the seal to Wang Mifeng, prompting the Heavenly Chasm Sword Master to take it and challenge Feng Jiahe.
• Feng Jiahe and the Heavenly Chasm Sword Master exchanged powerful attacks, and both recognized the other as a formidable opponent.
• Xiang Yuan recognized Feng Jiahe’s cloud-backed, dragon-like fist technique as a supreme art of the Xiao Clan and suspected the Tomb-Keeping Sect had raided an imperial mausoleum.

Feng Jiahe defeated the Sky Chasm Swordmaster, revealed he was a grandmaster of the Xiao Clan, and claimed the Feng Clan altar’s secret treasure. The Feng Clan patriarch’s remnant soul tried to possess several people before entering Xiang Yuan, where it faced a mysterious black-and-white force.

• Feng Jiahe revealed his Heaven-and-Earth Armor Transformation and killed the Sky Chasm Swordmaster, then seized his divine artifact sword and destroyed his Primordial Spirit.
• Feng Jiahe used the Feng Clan head’s seal and prepared blood to activate the altar, while Xiang Yuan and the Wang Clan cultivators watched.
• The altar revealed the Feng Clan patriarch’s mummified corpse and remnant soul, which demanded to know who among them was a Feng Clan descendant.
• Feng Jiahe and Xiang Yuan accused each other of being Feng Jiahe, and the remnant soul tried to possess Feng Jiahe before rejecting him.
• The remnant soul failed to possess Wang Mifeng and Wang Yunxi, then entered Xiang Yuan despite the demonic qi and encountered two black-and-white blades in his inner world.

Xiang Yuan looted the Feng Clan ancestral grounds, discovered a fragment revealing Yan Xuanhe’s Heavenfall Sword Strike, and gained new insight into his swordsmanship. He exposed the surviving Feng Jiahe as Xiao Feng, robbed him, and forced him to swear an oath before learning about the Tomb-Keeping Sect’s unusual origins; Xiang Yuan then decided to impersonate one of its disciples himself.

• The Feng Clan ancestor’s remnant soul was destroyed, and Xiang Yuan took its damaged Primordial Spirit pearl and a jade fragment from the corpse’s treasure box.
• Xiang Yuan sensed Yan Xuanhe’s sword art through the fragment and gained insight that strengthened his Ancestor Peace Sword Art.
• Xiang Yuan recognized that Feng Jiahe was connected to the Shendu Xiao Clan, took his spatial ring, and seized Wang Mifeng’s treasured sword.
• Feng Jiahe emerged from Xiang Yuan’s pile of discarded items, and Xiang Yuan forced him to abandon Feng Jiahe’s appearance and swear a detailed oath.
• Xiao Feng explained that he had learned the Tomb-Keeping Sect’s transformation art by stealing it from a dead inheritor, then described how the sect’s reputation was upheld by orthodox figures.
• Xiang Yuan decided that he, Li Xianyuan, would become a disciple of the Tomb-Keeping Sect.

Xiang Yuan left the Feng Clan with the patriarch’s seal and arranged to meet Xiao Feng in Shendu, then visited Daoist Purple Duckweed to sell magical treasures and negotiate over an Other Shore Demon Flower. Shang Qingmeng arrived unexpectedly, drove Purple Duckweed away, and insisted that she had severed her emotions and felt no romantic attachment to Xiang Yuan.

• Xiang Yuan and Xiao Feng parted at the Feng Clan ancestral grounds after agreeing to meet in Shendu the following month so Xiao Feng could repay his debt.
• Xiang Yuan returned to the Feng residence, gave Feng Wenyu and Feng Wenyuan the patriarch’s seal, and planned to leave while keeping Feng Wenshu’s identity for future use.
• Xiang Yuan met Daoist Purple Duckweed in Bishui County and offered her more than twenty magical treasures to sell through Sword Heart Studio.
• Daoist Purple Duckweed examined Xiang Yuan’s Other Shore Demon Flower, explained its value, and agreed to refine some of it after swearing a Primordial Spirit oath.
• Shang Qingmeng arrived at the courtyard, ordered Daoist Purple Duckweed back to the sect, and held Xiang Yuan close while Purple Duckweed watched from the doorway.
• Xiang Yuan challenged Shang Qingmeng about her jealousy and insistence on drawing near him, but she denied having feelings for him and said they should part once she no longer needed his help cultivating.

After spending several days with Shang Qingmeng, Xiang Yuan obtained Other Shore pills from Purple Duckweed and resumed his travels. He reached White Cloud Manor in Western Chu, where his saber practice brought him to a daunting bottleneck before he reunited with Yue Huanjiang.

• Shang Qingmeng kept Xiang Yuan with her for several days, then let him leave after he refused to return with her to Sword Heart Studio.
• Purple Duckweed gave Xiang Yuan five Other Shore pills, and he supplied her with part of an Other Shore Flower to refine more.
• Xiang Yuan traveled to Changle County and waited at White Cloud Manor for Yue Huanjiang.
• Xiang Yuan practiced his saber arts, drawing on the Door-Crack Sword Venerable’s realm and encountering a bottleneck he chose to overcome through patient cultivation.
• Yue Huanjiang arrived, praised Xiang Yuan’s saber skills, and invited him to a feast on the river.

Xiang Yuan joined Yue Huanjiang for a river outing at White Cloud Manor, where he enjoyed the scenery, wine, poetry, and the chance to pet his master's cat. Their visit ended when Yue Huanjiang received news that White Cloud Manor needed allies to contest a newly discovered grotto-heaven, and Xiang Yuan recognized that one invited faction might be connected to the True Warrior.

• Xiang Yuan and Yue Huanjiang sailed to White Cloud Manor's private island, shared river delicacies and wine, and watched the broad landscape of Tongjing Prefecture.
• Hongxiao and Qingli arrived with their master's white cat, and Xiang Yuan enthusiastically petted it while casually reciting a poem that impressed Yue Huanjiang.
• Xiang Yuan told Yue Huanjiang that he planned to return to the Southern Border for the New Year and mentioned that a woman had feelings for him.
• Yue Huanjiang received a secret letter summoning him to greet guests and explained that White Cloud Manor sought allies against the Qilin Pass Zhu Clan and three other Southern Jin factions over a grotto-heaven in Qilin Mountain.
• Yue Huanjiang named Qingxu Sect and Sword Heart Studio as White Cloud Manor's invited allies, and Xiang Yuan reacted to the news that Azure Cloud Sect's teachings descended from the True Warrior.

Xiang Yuan accompanied Yue Huanjiang to White Cloud Manor, hoping to help with the crisis surrounding its hidden grotto-heaven. There, he disguised himself as Li Xianyuan and unexpectedly came face-to-face with Shang Qingmeng and the Sword Heart Studio delegation.

• Yue Huanjiang invited Xiang Yuan to White Cloud Manor after Xiang Yuan insisted on helping and promised to stay out of danger.
• Xiang Yuan teased Yue Huanjiang about Qingli and Hongxiao, who quickly took a liking to him.
• At White Cloud Manor, Xiang Yuan changed his appearance to hide his identity from Sword Heart Studio.
• Qu Rou allowed Xiang Yuan to accompany her and Yue Huanjiang to meet the visiting Sword Heart Studio elders.
• Qu Rou and Qin Zhaorong negotiated over Sword Heart Studio's appearance fee while Shang Qingmeng remained silent.
• Shang Qingmeng noticed the disguised Xiang Yuan and felt annoyed that Daoist Purple Duckweed was always near him.

Qin Zhaorong and Qu Rou negotiated Shang Qingmeng’s appearance fee while Xiang Yuan secretly visited Ziping, who had been driven from Sword Heart Studio. Shang Qingmeng caught them in an awkward position, but Xiang Yuan kissed her to defuse her anger, and Qin Zhaorong then walked in on them.

• Qin Zhaorong and Qu Rou failed to agree on Shang Qingmeng’s appearance fee, though they continued discussing other cooperation between Sword Heart Studio and White Cloud Manor.
• Qu Rou asked Xinyanzi to spar with Shang Qingmeng, and Xiang Yuan slipped away to visit Ziping in Sword Heart Studio’s courtyard.
• Ziping told Xiang Yuan that Shang Qingmeng was angry with her and that she had been driven out of Sword Heart Studio after running out of pills to refine.
• Shang Qingmeng returned from her one-strike duel with Xinyanzi and found Xiang Yuan and Ziping in an indecorous position, then accused Ziping of pursuing him.
• Xiang Yuan kissed Shang Qingmeng to distract her, but Ziping stayed to watch, and Qin Zhaorong entered and recognized Xiang Yuan as the man she had lost out on.

Xiang Yuan and Shang Qingmeng continued their intimate but argumentative relationship while she explained White Cloud Manor’s demonic inheritance and invited him to join Sword Heart Studio’s Minor Grotto-Heaven expedition. He agreed, then provoked her jealousy by transforming into people she disliked, leaving her questioning his closeness to Lay Buddhist Lingyu.

• Daoist Purple Duckweed struck Qin Zhaorong for eavesdropping, and Qin Zhaorong mocked her over Xiang Yuan until Purple Duckweed twisted her arm and made it crack.
• Xiang Yuan told Shang Qingmeng that nothing was going on between him and Ziping, while Shang Qingmeng accused him of caring for Ziping and pressed him about his supposed fiancée.
• Shang Qingmeng explained that White Cloud Manor’s beast-taming inheritance relied on demon blood and that the manor sought the Minor Grotto-Heaven to escape the inheritance’s limitations.
• Shang Qingmeng asked Xiang Yuan to leave White Cloud Manor and join Sword Heart Studio’s expedition, and he agreed because he expected greater freedom and a larger share of any gains.
• Xiang Yuan transformed into Ziping and then Lay Buddhist Lingyu to provoke Shang Qingmeng, who grew jealous and asked whether he was close to Lingyu.

Xiang Yuan left White Cloud Manor, then joined Sword Heart Studio and its allies at the entrance to the minor hidden realm in the Qilin Mountain Range. After entering, he was separated from the others and set out to find Ziping, only to discover her legs sticking out of the grass.

• Xiang Yuan told Yue Huanjiang he planned to leave White Cloud Manor, and Yue Huanjiang escorted him out of Changle County with Hongxiao and Qingli assigned to show him around.
• Xiang Yuan posed as Lay Buddhist Lingyu at White Cloud Manor, where Shang Qingmeng caught Ziping in the deception and Ziping chased Qin Zhaorong.
• Seven days later, Sword Heart Studio and White Cloud Manor negotiated an alliance with the Zhu Clan and other forces before gathering at the Qilin Mountain Range.
• Xiang Yuan advised Shang Qingmeng to let others enter the minor hidden realm first, then followed her group through the golden pool after Daoist Ziyang, Zen Master Xuanji, and Xinyanzi entered.
• The realm’s spatial force separated Xiang Yuan from the others, so he flew off to search for Ziping and the other Spirit Transformation Realm cultivators.
• Xiang Yuan found two legs protruding from the grass and began pulling them, suspecting that Ziping was buried there.

Xiang Yuan, Ziping, and Qin Zhaorong crossed the hostile lesser realm to search for their separated Sword Heart Studio junior sisters. They found the five captives controlled by Jiang Luo just as Zhu Dang and Jiang Luo prepared to fight over a jade mirror.

• Xiang Yuan revived Ziping and Qin Zhaorong after they fell unconscious, then formed a team with them to find the missing Sword Heart Studio cultivators.
• Ziping used divination to guide the group toward a floating island, while Xiang Yuan carried the two Spirit Transformation cultivators through the realm's crushing pressure.
• Ziping deciphered a formation on a stone wall, and the three entered a concealed passage leading to an ancient Taoist temple.
• Xiang Yuan sensed Zhu Dang and Jiang Luo facing off near a jade mirror and spotted five Sword Heart Studio junior sisters under Jiang Luo's control.
• Zhu Dang and Jiang Luo sent their Spirit Transformation followers toward Xiang Yuan's group, then prepared to battle over the mirror.

Jiang Luo defeated Zhu Dang by corrupting and stealing the Mountain Pass Seal, then consumed the grandmaster’s life essence. Xiang Yuan stayed behind to confront Jiang Luo, who had become a demonic creature, and transformed into a demon himself as the fight began.

• Zhu Dang overpowered Jiang Luo at first, but Jiang Luo corrupted the Mountain Pass Seal and used it to strike back.
• Jiang Luo killed Zhu Dang, drained his essence, and ruined the Guanshan Seal.
• Xiang Yuan absorbed the demonic qi afflicting Sword Heart Studio’s five young ladies, while Ziping took them away from the battlefield.
• Xiang Yuan sealed the surrounding space and challenged Jiang Luo, recognizing that the demonic art had cost him his reason.
• Jiang Luo attacked Xiang Yuan with a blood-river tentacle, but Xiang Yuan’s sword met it with decayed demonic energy.
• Xiang Yuan transformed into a three-meter-tall demon after Jiang Luo boasted that his own demonic body was complete.

Xiang Yuan defeated Jiang Luo with his true Heavenly Demon body, but the bloodstained saber that had enabled Jiang Luo’s demonic art escaped, revealing another powerful presence in the minor heavenly realm. Xiang Yuan then discovered the Body-Observing Precious Jade and took it for himself, while Purple Duckweed and Qin Zhaorong reacted to his cover-up and wondered where Shang Qingmeng was.

• Xiang Yuan overwhelmed Jiang Luo by using decayed demonic qi to pollute his Undying Blood River, then destroyed the river with a Heavenfall Sword Strike and killed him.
• The bloodstained saber escaped through a spatial seal, leading Xiang Yuan to suspect that its powerful owner was somewhere in the minor heavenly realm.
• Xiang Yuan startled Purple Duckweed and Qin Zhaorong with his demonized appearance, then returned to normal and knocked Qin Zhaorong down when she charged him.
• Xiang Yuan found the Body-Observing Precious Jade, used it to expose flaws in his cultivation and partially deduce his Heavenfall Sword Strike, then stopped Purple Duckweed from using an Other Shore Flower to force a breakthrough.
• Xiang Yuan removed the jade mirror and claimed a Hundred Rivers Alliance grandmaster had stolen it, while Qin Zhaorong helped him blame the alliance and the two praised each other’s story.
• Purple Duckweed watched Xiang Yuan and Qin Zhaorong conspire together and wondered why Shang Qingmeng had not arrived.

Xiang Yuan and his companions discovered a formation linking the floating islands and watched Nether Passage Realm grandmasters fight over an opportunity in a ruined Buddhist monastery. Shang Qingmeng appeared after Ziping’s bizarre attempt to summon her, but Zen Master Xuanji claimed the opportunity and manifested a Golden Wheel of Merit.

• Xiang Yuan sent Ziping and Qin Zhaorong to find the teleportation array and bring the others into the ruins.
• Xinyanzi, Daoist Ziyang, and Zen Master Xuanji confronted Zhu Ban and Qu Rou at a ruined Buddhist monastery, and the Daoists defeated their attacks.
• Xiang Yuan, Ziping, Qin Zhaorong, and the junior sisters watched the battle while Xiang Yuan praised Daoist Ziyang’s True Warrior Great Emperor Dharma Form.
• Ziping tried to summon Shang Qingmeng by having Xiang Yuan and Qin Zhaorong hug, then ambushed Xiang Yuan, and Shang Qingmeng appeared.
• Shang Qingmeng warned that it was too late to stop Zen Master Xuanji, who emerged in golden light with a Golden Wheel of Merit on his shoulder.

Xiang Yuan and the others entered the blood-red ruins to help reinforce the seal on a great demon, while Zen Master Xuanji’s Golden Wheel of Merit held back the corruption. They found Xiang Xinyan and Wu Pan transformed by demonic power, and the group faced two corrupted opponents.

• Zen Master Xuanji revealed a huge Golden Wheel of Merit, and Daoist Ziyang explained that they had come to reseal a great demon; Shang Qingmeng agreed to help.
• Xiang Yuan handed Zhu Ban the contaminated Pass Mountain Seal and described how Jiang Luo had taken a blood blade and corrupted the Hundred Rivers Alliance inheritance, prompting the elders to search for the seal.
• Xiang Yuan helped Zen Master Xuanji carry the Golden Wheel of Merit through the teleportation gate, and the group emerged into blood-red ruins where a force struck their Primordial Spirits.
• A colossal shadow and blood-red eyes appeared in the distance, but Zen Master Xuanji’s Golden Wheel of Merit pushed back the corruption and revealed the ruins’ true appearance.
• The group encountered Xiang Xinyan and Wu Pan, both transformed by demonic power; Daoist Ziyang identified Xiang Xinyan’s weapon as the Water-Subduing Iron Sword, while Qu Rou said Wu Pan’s axe was called the Pangu Axe.

Zen Master Xuanji and his allies appeared to seal the Heavenly Demon, but the demon revealed that it had escaped and launched a counterattack. Xiang Yuan saved Qu Rou, defeated Wu Pan, and awakened the Merit Golden Wheel’s power as he joined the fight against the Heavenly Demon.

• Xinyanzi and Daoist Ziyang held off Xiang Xinyan and Wu Pan while Zen Master Xuanji carried the Merit Golden Wheel to the demonic eye, with Shang Qingmeng helping him overcome the demon domain.
• Zen Master Xuanji placed the Merit Golden Wheel over the demonic eye, believing the seal was restored, but Xiang Xinyan revealed that the Heavenly Demon’s Primordial Spirit had escaped into his body and attacked the group.
• The Heavenly Demon sent four clones against Shang Qingmeng, Xinyanzi, and Daoist Ziyang while Wu Pan attacked Xiang Yuan, Qu Rou, and Zhu Ban.
• Xiang Yuan used an Other Shore Pill to boost his strength, rescued the gravely wounded Qu Rou from demonic qi, and drove her away from the battle before Zhu Ban was knocked aside.
• Xiang Yuan grew to three zhang tall, beat Wu Pan into a pulp, and took the Pangu Axe and Water-Subduing Iron Sword.
• Zen Master Xuanji threw the Merit Golden Wheel to Xiang Yuan, whose great merit in subduing demons caused it to blaze with golden light.

Xiang Yuan used the Merit Golden Wheel and Water-Subduing Iron Sword to battle the extraterrestrial heavenly demon, then pursued it into the sealed pocket realm and battered it with immense Buddha-like powers. As the pocket realm collapsed around the fight, Xiang Yuan prepared a Heavenfall Sword Strike to finish the demon.

• Xiang Yuan’s immense merit awakened the Merit Golden Wheel and won the Water-Subduing Iron Sword’s willing allegiance, allowing him to devastate the heavenly demon’s blood forms.
• Daoist Ziyang, Xinyanzi, and Zen Master Xuanji debated Xiang Yuan’s origins while Shang Qingmeng kept his identity as Lingyu concealed.
• The heavenly demon escaped the folded space into the pocket realm, but found its exit sealed and the Crimson Universe’s demonic aura closing in.
• Xiang Yuan unleashed the Merit Golden Wheel’s power to crush the heavenly demon and destroy much of the pocket realm, prompting Xinyanzi and Shang Qingmeng to rescue their disciples.
• Xiang Yuan captured the battered demon, burned it with golden light, and used the Merit Golden Wheel to prepare a Heavenfall Sword Strike.