Chapter Summaries

Plot points

• After memorizing the Ancient Script version of the Sage’s Nurturing Nature Ode, Song Shuhang expects another trip to the Infinite Make-Up Exam Space—but Myriad Books Mountain instead reassembles into a giant book. The Sage Silence Pool still does not appear.
• True Lord Eternal Fire writes the Sage’s Self-Cultivation Ode and Sage’s Nurturing Life Ode. Myriad Books Mountain recites both, and their glowing words combine to form a floating pool of light with an entrance to another space.
• Entry proves selective: Venerable White, Song Shuhang, True Lord Eternal Fire, True Lord Dustfall, and Lay Buddhist Most Transcendent get through, while several others—including Young Master Phoenix Slayer and Fairy Lychee—cannot.
• The group outside suspects entry requires knowledge of the ancient texts. A-Qi arrives with Blade-Wielding Scholar Su Wenqu, who agrees to teach them.
• Inside, the entrants find a small, trap-free hall and an ordinary-looking Confucian scholar. He introduces himself as the Sage and begins recounting his legendary origins.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang shows caution by rejecting the idea of appraising Myriad Books Mountain, fearing the cost could kill him. He later enters the pool, though the reason remains unclear.
• True Lord Eternal Fire’s knowledge of the texts helps reveal the entrance, and he generously invites the other cultivators to explore it.
• The cultivators work together to explain the pool’s selective entry, with Su Clan’s Sixteen proposing that mastery of Confucian texts may be the key. Su Wenqu’s arrival gives them a chance to test that theory.
• Venerable White enters easily, while True Lord White Crane is comically left outside despite his eagerness to follow White.
• The Sage’s grand, self-aggrandizing introduction contrasts with Song Shuhang’s speechless reaction.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as a key: Entry may depend on understanding or memorizing Confucian texts rather than cultivation rank.
• Mystery and discovery: The pool’s conditions and the Sage’s purpose remain unknown.
• Humor through contrast: The Sage’s immense claims are met by Shuhang’s quiet disbelief and the group’s playful banter.

Key plot points and events

• Song Shuhang and the others realize the seemingly ordinary Confucian scholar is the legendary Confucian Sage, whose birth and accomplishments match the records. True Lord Eternal Fire respectfully pays his respects, though the Sage continues speaking as if unaware.
• The Sage recounts his extraordinary life: prodigious from birth, he met a blue-haired Fairy at age six who introduced him to cultivation, reached the Second Grade in half a month and the Third Grade within a little over a year, then spent ten years developing the beginnings of his own Dao.
• The Sage eventually founded the Confucian lineage, trained thirteen Tribulation Immortals, and became unmatched—an era of Confucian dominance in which even demonic cultivators kept their heads down.
• The Fairy’s description reminds Song Shuhang of a blue-haired cultivator who recently gave him divinations. He had suspected she was Copper Trigram in disguise; True Lord Dustfall and Drunken Layman confirm that she was Copper Trigram, transformed into the appearance of Skylark of the Mysterious Maiden Sect. Venerable White is puzzled, since he remembers Skylark as black-haired, while the others insist her hair has always been blue.
• True Lord Eternal Fire is intrigued to learn that the Sage’s former mentor may still be alive. The Sage then begins explaining the cause of the Confucian School’s eventual downfall: “something went wrong with the Heavenly Dao.” The chapter ends before he explains further.

Character developments and interactions

• The Sage presents himself with grand, boastful confidence, but his story also shows genuine reflection: meeting his mentor taught him that his early knowledge had been narrow, and he later chose to create an original path rather than keep cultivating by convention.
• Song Shuhang’s admiration turns to quiet self-consciousness as he compares the Sage’s cultivation pace with his own unusually rapid progress—though Shuhang’s advancement depended partly on an external power-transfer technique.
• Dustfall and Drunken Layman help identify Copper Trigram and Skylark, while Venerable White questions their recollection. Eternal Fire listens respectfully and becomes interested in meeting Skylark.

Significant themes

• Greatness and humility: The Sage repeatedly celebrates his own achievements, yet acknowledges how much he learned from his mentor.
• Learning and forging one’s own path: The Sage’s scholarship and cultivation culminate in a unique Dao he created himself.
• Memory and identity: The conflicting recollections of Skylark’s appearance raise uncertainty about what the characters remember.
• The fragility of order: The Sage’s account points toward a crisis in the Heavenly Dao as the turning point behind the Confucian School’s destruction.

Key events

• The Sage explains that the Heavenly Dao had grown tired of its role and seemed ready to quit. Many powerful Longevity Immortals, including the Sage, prepared to compete for the Heavenly Mandate.
• The Sage defeated more than a dozen rivals, believing himself the strongest candidate. A mysterious being warned him not to inherit the Heavenly Mandate, but he dismissed the warning.
• A strange, apparently otherworldly Longevity Immortal then challenged him. After decades of fighting, the Sage was nearly defeated by its extraordinary ability to recover from any injury.
• Facing death, the Sage used an unused Confucian talent that could swallow part of a target’s “existence.” The mysterious opponent nevertheless became the new Heavenly Dao and killed the Sage, causing his complete destruction.
• The listeners assume the Sage’s account is a recording. Venerable White tests the apparent figure; when True Lord Eternal Fire tries to touch him, he is flung away. The figure then explains that the story had indeed been playing like a recording and introduces himself as the Sage Silence Pool.

Character developments and interactions

• The Sage’s recollection reveals both his immense confidence and his eventual defeat, adding a tragic dimension to his legendary reputation.
• True Lord Eternal Fire briefly hopes the Sage may still be alive and able to restore the Confucian Sect, then resigns himself to the Sage’s death—until the figure reacts to being touched, renewing his hope.
• Venerable White remains observant and skeptical, noticing the inconsistency between the Sage’s supposed death and the figure’s presence. He prompts Song Shuhang to test it, but Eternal Fire steps in instead.
• Song Shuhang and the others listen in growing astonishment, especially at the revelations about the Heavenly Dao and the Sage’s final battle.

Significant themes

• The burden of power: Becoming the Heavenly Dao is presented as both an ultimate ambition and a potentially disastrous choice.
• Pride and warning: The Sage’s refusal to heed the mysterious being’s advice helps set the stage for his downfall.
• The limits of strength: Even the era’s greatest warrior cannot overcome an opponent whose recovery makes it effectively impossible to kill.
• Existence and identity: The Sage’s talent attacks something beyond body or soul, while the chapter’s ending raises a new question about what the Sage Silence Pool actually is.

Key plot points and events

• True Lord Eternal Fire asks whether Sage Silence Pool is the Sage’s resurrection plan. Silence Pool explains that the Sage is truly dead: after biting off a piece of existence from the mysterious Longevity Immortal who later became the Heavenly Dao, Silence Pool gradually formed as a hybrid entity.
• Silence Pool reveals that he has stayed in the cave to pass on the Sage’s inheritance.
• To qualify, a person must have been born accompanied by a supernatural omen—such as purple qi or auspicious light. Song Shuhang, the True Lords, and Venerable White all fail the requirement, leaving them unable to inherit it.
• Venerable White is more interested in examining Silence Pool than in the inheritance. Silence Pool warns that he cannot be touched, but Venerable White produces spatial energy that appears capable of overcoming this protection.
• Fearing that Venerable White will dismantle him, Silence Pool hastily offers a consolation: a recording of the Sage lecturing on the Dao and one spell or secret technique for each person.

Character developments and interactions

• Sage Silence Pool clarifies his identity and purpose, then becomes increasingly alarmed as Venerable White approaches. He shifts from gatekeeper to negotiator when his warning fails.
• Venerable White remains casually curious and eager to investigate Silence Pool. His apparent ability to use spatial power at the Seventh-Grade surprises Silence Pool.
• Song Shuhang hopes to receive Confucian techniques, but recognizes that the group’s lack of birth omens disqualifies them. He also jokes that Venerable White’s habit of taking things apart makes Silence Pool’s fate uncertain.
• True Lord Eternal Fire pursues the inheritance earnestly and considers how the Confucian School might produce a child meeting its unusual qualification.
• True Lord Dustfall and Lay Buddhist Most Transcendent share the group’s disappointment; all had hoped to benefit from the Sage’s legacy.

Significant themes

• Fate and unequal beginnings: The inheritance’s birth-omen requirement leaves the characters feeling they “lost at the starting line.”
• Legacy and mortality: The Sage’s death shows that even powerful immortals can be permanently destroyed, while Silence Pool embodies an unintended remnant of the Sage’s final struggle.
• Curiosity versus caution: Venerable White’s scientific interest overwhelms Silence Pool’s warnings, creating both tension and comedy.
• Adaptation after disappointment: When the grand inheritance proves unattainable, Silence Pool offers smaller teachings and techniques instead.

The Sage Silence Pool offers the group a chance to learn one of the Sage’s secret arts, prompting each cultivator to make a request. Song Shuhang asks for third-grade sword flight, but the Pool tells him to cultivate properly and save that ambition for the fourth grade. Venerable White asks to learn the Sage’s ability to swallow part of an opponent’s existence, only to discover it was innate, not a teachable art. Drunk Moon Hermit seeks a technique to make people remember him; the Pool says the Sage had no need for one and advises him to keep cultivating.
True Lord Eternal Fire chooses the Sagebrush Battle Art and is sent into a vision of the Sage creating it, gaining an opportunity comparable to hearing the Sage lecture on the Dao. True Lord Dustfall opts for a random selection and receives the Dragon-Phoenix Seal, a powerful joint technique requiring compatible male and female cultivators. He jokes that this may signal the arrival of romance.
Song Shuhang asks the Pool to choose a technique suited to him. It recognizes his strong foundation, deep reserves of true qi, unusually powerful mental energy, and experience with body tempering. The vision then reveals the technique selected for him: the Confucian Vajra Body—a name that leaves him baffled.
Character developments and interactions: The Sage Silence Pool tries to guide the group but grows increasingly exasperated by their unusual requests. The cultivators reveal their different priorities: Venerable White’s curiosity, Drunk Moon Hermit’s desire for recognition, Dustfall’s easygoing pragmatism, and Eternal Fire’s serious interest in Confucian arts. Song Shuhang entrusts the choice to the Pool, which assesses him carefully before assigning his technique.
Themes: The chapter combines cultivation ambition with comic misunderstanding. It highlights the value of patience and fitting one’s practice to one’s abilities, while the random draw and bizarre technique requests undercut the solemnity of receiving a legendary inheritance.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• The Sage Silence Pool selects the Confucian Vajra Body for Song Shuhang, much to his dismay: he had assumed the Confucian Sect would not have a body-tempering art like the Buddhist Diamond Body.
• The pool’s memory fragments show the Confucian Sage devising and refining the secret art through repeated experiments. By experiencing the process, Shuhang learns the technique and gains a deep understanding of how it works.
• Shuhang wonders why the Sage did not notice him inside the memory, unlike Daoist Master Scarlet Firmament, who had sensed him during a previous memory experience. He considers whether the difference was due to the kind of memory he entered, the Sage’s death, or both.
• While True Lords Eternal Fire and Dustfall and Hermit Bright Moon, When Will You Be continue receiving their inheritances, Venerable White finishes learning the Space Compression Explosion Secret Art. He says it is powerful but may be difficult to master.
• Shuhang learns that the Confucian Vajra Body strengthens the body through Righteous Qi and writing, rather than conventional physical training. Its demanding characters carry great weight, making Shuhang’s Steel Hand especially useful for completing the exercises.
• Meanwhile, at White Cloud Academy, members of the Nine Provinces Number One Group try to enter the pool of light after memorizing two of the Sage’s writings. Phoenix Slayer, Snow Wolf Cave Master, Northern River’s Loose Cultivator, Fairy Lychee, and several others all fail despite their careful memorization and varied attempts.
• As the chapter ends, Su Clan’s Sixteen steps forward to try, while Northern River doubts that memorizing the essays is actually the entry requirement.

Character developments

• Song Shuhang moves from regretting the pool’s choice to recognizing that the Confucian Vajra Body suits his current condition and offers an unusual, practical cultivation method. He also gains valuable insight by experiencing the Sage’s creative process.
• Venerable White has obtained a formidable new technique, though its difficulty leaves him uncertain whether he can master it.
• Su Clan’s Sixteen remains curious and willing to test the pool despite the others’ repeated failures.
• The unsuccessful challengers become increasingly confused, and their confidence in their memorization proves no help.

Character interactions

• Shuhang asks Venerable White about his inheritance and explains his own technique; White reassures him that the Sage Silence Pool chose well.
• The failed challengers tease one another: Phoenix Slayer mocks Snow Wolf and Northern River, while those two join Phoenix Slayer in mocking Fairy Lychee.
• Northern River advises Sixteen not to bother, but she calmly decides to make her own attempt.

Significant themes

• Unexpected paths to cultivation: Confucian body tempering uses writing and Righteous Qi instead of conventional exercise.
• Learning through experience: Shuhang’s participation in the Sage’s experimentation gives him more than the technique itself—it gives him an understanding of its creation.
• Limits of observation and memory: The group’s precise memorization and elaborate jumps fail to reveal how the pool works, leaving its true requirement mysterious.
• Humor and camaraderie: The repeated failed attempts and friendly mockery provide comic relief alongside the chapter’s cultivation revelations.

Plot and events

• Su Clan’s Sixteen is the only member of the Nine Provinces Number One Group to enter the space behind the Sage Silence Pool on the first attempt.
• She realizes the barrier’s true requirement: the Sage’s two compositions must be transcribed in proper, straight-lined characters. Blade-Wielding Scholar Su Wenqu’s decorative, wavy calligraphy had caused everyone else to fail.
• Sixteen shares the solution before disappearing into the pool. Under the group’s intimidating pressure, Su Wenqu rewrites the texts correctly, and the others enter successfully on their next try.
• Inside, everyone witnesses another replay of the Confucian Sage’s life, receives a chance to learn a secret technique, and hears a recorded lecture on the Dao. Eternal Fire and Su Wenqu benefit especially from the lecture.
• As the group prepares to leave and resume work on their film, the Sage Silence Pool asks Song Shuhang to stay. Shuhang assumes it wants the Dharma-treasure fragment he carries—but the pool actually asks him to release a fellow Daoist hidden on his person, so she can receive the promised secret-technique opportunity. The chapter ends with both Shuhang and the pool momentarily speechless.

Character developments and interactions

• Sixteen demonstrates perceptiveness and initiative: she connects Shuhang’s earlier account of the Infinite Retake Exam to Su Wenqu’s unusual calligraphy, works out the solution, and helps the group.
• Su Wenqu is pressured into correcting his calligraphy by Lychee, Phoenix Slayer, Northern River, and Su Clan’s Seven. Though embarrassed and intimidated, he finds that writing carefully deepens his understanding of the two Confucian works.
• Song Shuhang enjoys a private sense of satisfaction when the others finally share the ordeal he previously suffered, then tries to suppress his schadenfreude. His assumption about why the pool summons him sets up the comic ending.
• Su Clan’s Seven comforts Su Wenqu, but his promise to go easy in a future arena match only if Wenqu rewrites the texts adds to the pressure.

Significant themes

• Attention and precision: A seemingly artistic flourish becomes a practical obstacle; careful, correct practice matters.
• Growth through pressure: Su Wenqu’s forced rewrite becomes a meaningful exercise that improves his understanding.
• Fortune mixed with misfortune: The failed attempts and group intimidation lead to unexpected learning and shared rewards.
• Comedic misunderstandings and reversal: Shuhang guesses the pool’s motive incorrectly, ending the chapter on an abrupt, humorous reveal.

Chapter 748 Summary:

The Berserk Cong Niang

Key Plot Points and Events

• Song Shuhang and the Saintly Stillness Pool awkwardly question each other at the same time—Shuhang asks about someone hidden on him, while the Pool asks about the crystal fragment in his hand.
• The Saintly Stillness Pool identifies Cong Niang inside the One-Inch Shrinking Pouch. Since she has learned the Sage Cultivation Scripture and Sage Nurturing Nature Scripture, she qualifies to inherit one of its secret techniques.
• Cong Niang becomes emotional and cries because her time with Song Shuhang has brought her many opportunities, including the Heavenly Weeping Scripture, rapid cultivation progress, and now a secret technique connected to the Confucian Sage.
• She initially asks for an escape technique, hoping to gain a way to flee instantly. However, such techniques require at least Rank Four cultivation, so she instead chooses a random secret technique.
• Cong Niang enters the Pool’s consciousness space and randomly inherits the Berserk Technique, an ancient technique that was not created by the Sage but had been obtained by him as a spoil of war.
• Shuhang explains that the crystal is a fragment of Lapis Lazuli Scholar’s natal magical item, transmitted to him before the scholar’s death. The Pool recognizes its familiar aura and borrows it, hoping it will restore missing memories of the Sage.
• The Pool offers to compensate Shuhang by separating out Lapis Lazuli Scholar’s inheritance if the attempt succeeds, though it warns that success is unlikely.
• Cong Niang quickly masters the Berserk Technique and immediately demonstrates it without waiting for Shuhang’s warning.
• Her sprout turns red, her eyes become bloodshot, and she enters a mindless berserk state. She attacks the Saintly Stillness Pool but is repelled by its defensive barrier.
• She then attacks Shuhang, repeatedly punching and kicking his leg. Her attacks are harmless due to the difference in strength, but she refuses to stop.
• When Shuhang tries to restrain her, Cong Niang uses Onion Blade Unsheathing to escape and continues attacking him.

Character Developments

• Cong Niang: Shows gratitude for the opportunities she has received through Shuhang, but also retains her humorous desire to escape from him. Her luck leads her to an unexpectedly powerful and unusual technique. However, her first use reveals that the Berserk Technique causes her to lose all reason and attack anyone nearby.
• Song Shuhang: Continues acting as Cong Niang’s protector and handler, while also pursuing the possibility of obtaining Lapis Lazuli Scholar’s inheritance. He becomes increasingly exasperated when Cong Niang’s new ability turns against him.
• Saintly Stillness Pool: Demonstrates its role as a guardian and inheritor of the Sage’s legacy. It can identify qualified cultivators, transmit secret techniques, and possibly recover lost memories through the crystal fragment.
• Lapis Lazuli Scholar: Though absent and presumed dead, his legacy remains important through the crystal fragment and the potential inheritance it may provide Shuhang.

Significant Themes

• Inheritance and legacy: The chapter focuses on the transmission of techniques, memories, and magical inheritances from the Sage and Lapis Lazuli Scholar to the next generation.
• Luck and fate: Cong Niang randomly selects a technique and happens to obtain one that suits her exceptionally well, highlighting her strange and unpredictable fortune.
• Power versus control: Although Cong Niang gains a powerful technique, she cannot control herself while using it, showing that acquiring strength without mastering it can create new problems.
• Comedic consequences of cultivation: The serious inheritance of an ancient secret technique immediately turns into slapstick chaos when Cong Niang uses it to beat on Shuhang.
• Companionship and mutual benefit: Shuhang’s companions continue gaining opportunities through their association with him, even as those same companions frequently create trouble for him.

Character Interactions

• Song Shuhang and the Saintly Stillness Pool share an awkward but friendly exchange, speaking simultaneously and then politely allowing each other to answer first.
• The Pool treats Cong Niang as a legitimate inheritor, while Cong Niang eagerly approaches it for guidance.
• Shuhang worries about Cong Niang choosing a technique that might disadvantage her, but the Pool reassures him that she can learn by observing how the Sage mastered it.
• After Cong Niang activates the Berserk Technique, the Pool remains calm and explains how long the state may last, while Shuhang struggles to contain her.
• Cong Niang attacks both the Pool and Shuhang, but the Pool’s defenses repel her and Shuhang’s superior strength prevents her from causing harm.

Plot points and events

• Onion Lady’s Berserk Art leaves her unable to remember what happens while she is berserk. As she attacks Song Shuhang, she repeatedly uses Onion Blade Drawn to escape his grabs. Each escape sheds onion sprouts, and Shuhang eventually ends up with more than two hundred.
• When Onion Lady comes to, she is exhausted, with her stamina and true qi depleted. Shuhang reveals what happened; she realizes her own secret technique caused the sprouts and vows never to use Berserk Art again.
• Outside Sage Silence Pool, Venerable White continues making Disposable Flying Swords from willow branches to protect the group against the approaching battle with the Nine Nether Demons.
• Shuhang explains that Sage Silence Pool called him back so Onion Lady could receive a secret-technique inheritance. He asks Medicine Master to help her recover, and Medicine Master promises a restorative medicinal liquid.
• Shuhang gives Medicine Master more than ten onion sprouts in thanks for his past help and the Medicinal Bath Pill Formula. He considers trading the remaining sprouts for a meal from Fairy Bie Xue.
• The group remembers that Myriad Books Mountain has been left bent over for an extended time and works together to straighten him. Su Clan’s Sixteen then notices Shuhang examining several blades of grass associated with Saber Intent Tongxuan.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang remains practical and helpful, though his self-defense results in an absurd harvest. Feeling guilty, he seeks help for Onion Lady and shares some of the sprouts with Medicine Master.
• Onion Lady goes from boastful pride in her Berserk Art to horror and regret when she learns its consequences. She also resents Shuhang for treating her sprouts as gifts.
• Medicine Master offers to help Onion Lady recover and accepts the sprouts for his pill experiments.
• Su Clan’s Sixteen watches for Shuhang’s return and recognizes the significance of the grass he is studying.
• Venerable White keeps preparing protective weapons and cheerfully organizes the rescue of Myriad Books Mountain.

Significant themes

• Comedy through unintended consequences: Onion Lady’s powerful technique turns her own sprouts into Shuhang’s harvest.
• Friendship and mutual support: Shuhang seeks help for Onion Lady, repays Medicine Master’s kindness, and the group cooperates to help Myriad Books Mountain.
• Preparation amid looming danger: Venerable White’s sword-making underscores the approaching conflict with the Nine Nether Demons.

Plot points and events

• Song Shuhang examines Saber Intent Tongxuan, a rare herb that can help saber cultivators comprehend Saber Intent. Su Clan’s Sixteen says she ate more than fifty stalks before forming her own.
• Sixteen warns that cultivating one kind of martial intent—such as Saber Intent, Sword Intent, or Fist Intent—uses up the cultivator’s capacity to form another. Shuhang is surprised, then weighs the choice.
• Shuhang decides Saber Intent suits his abilities and techniques better than Sword Intent, especially because it could strengthen Senior Master Scarlet Firmament’s Heaven-Burning Flame Saber. He confirms that a saber cultivator can still use Sword Flight and produce Sword Qi-like attacks.
• Reassured, Shuhang swallows the herb whole. Sixteen warns too late that it should be taken with a special medicinal liquid: swallowing it directly causes intense pain, as if a blade were cutting through his throat and into his stomach.
• Unable to speak, Shuhang endures the pain. His Lotus-Blossom Tongue ability activates, producing a white lotus beside his mouth.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang shows his impulsive streak by swallowing the herb before hearing how to take it safely. He also makes a practical choice: prioritize a cultivation path that matches his strengths while keeping Sword Flight available for travel.
• Su Clan’s Sixteen shares her experience, explains the irreversible consequences of forming an intent, and tries to protect Shuhang from a painful mistake. Her warning comes just after he acts.

Significant themes

• Commitment and trade-offs: Forming one martial intent permanently closes the door to others, making cultivation choices consequential.
• Talent and practicality: Shuhang accepts that Saber Intent is a better fit than pursuing swordsmanship simply for its style.
• Impulsiveness and consequences: His eagerness to act turns a promising experiment into a painful ordeal.

Plot points and events

• Song Shuhang’s Lotus-Blossom Tongue activates unexpectedly after he swallows Saber-Intent Penetrating Mystique Grass. A fragrant white lotus appears, but his hoped-for ability evolution does not happen as expected.
• When Shuhang dispels the lotus, it leaves behind a single seed containing saber intent. His attempt to produce another seed creates only a lotus that vanishes completely.
• Venerable White examines the seed and explains that it was formed by refining the saber-intent grass Shuhang swallowed. The grass’s medicinal power is gone, and Shuhang himself gained no saber intent from it.
• White volunteers to test the seed. He finds it delicious and, more importantly, confirms that its pure, gentle saber intent is absorbed with over 80% efficiency—far better than the grass’s usual 30–40%.
• White advises Shuhang to make more seeds, trade them for saber-intent grass, and use the surplus to help himself learn saber intent.

Character developments

• Song Shuhang shifts from disappointment at gaining no personal benefit to excitement at discovering that his ability can produce a valuable, more effective cultivation resource.
• Venerable White shows his characteristic curiosity and appetite: he eagerly volunteers to test the seed, then gives a practical assessment and trading strategy.
• Su Clan’s Sixteen recognizes the seed’s saber intent and helps assess its properties.
• True Lord White Crane tries, too late, to suggest disinfecting the seed before White eats it.

Themes

• An apparent failure can yield an unexpected advantage: Shuhang loses the grass’s direct benefits but gains a more efficient product.
• Abilities’ value depends on how they are used; Shuhang realizes his seemingly awkward talent can become a source of profit.
• The scene mixes cultivation experimentation with comedy, especially through White’s eagerness to eat the “test subject.”

Character interactions

• Sixteen and Shuhang compare their impressions of the seed before White verifies its nature.
• Shuhang accepts White’s offer to test it, while White’s food-related enthusiasm briefly overshadows his scientific purpose.
• White’s final advice turns the discovery into a practical plan for Shuhang’s cultivation.

Key plot points and events

• Song Shuhang’s Lotus-Blossom Tongue unexpectedly proves useful: it can help produce Saber-Intent Penetrating Mystique Lotus Seeds. True Lord Eternal Fire and the others suggest that improving the ability could let him produce several at once, potentially earning enough Spirit Stones to support his cultivation.
• Su Clan’s Seven offers to help gather evil-demon corpses in exchange for Virtuous Golden Lotus seeds, while he and Venerable White compete for the chance to trade Shuhang Saber-Intent Penetrating Mystique Grass. Shuhang declines to try refining another seed until his throat and stomach recover.
• White Cloud Academy repairs Myriad Books Mountain and protects it as a vital site connected to the Sage Silence Pool. The film crew finishes filming and is moved to a safer location; Fairy Lychee keeps a camera to record Venerable White fighting the Netherworld demons.
• Before the expected battle, Shuhang practices with the Gale Saber and quickly masters its techniques. He then uses the Fengshan Brush to write the Righteous-Qi Body Tempering Chapter from memory.
• Writing each character is physically exhausting: it draws in Righteous Qi that strengthens Shuhang’s body while adding crushing weight. After finishing the chapter, he collapses, and the paper’s characters vanish as more Righteous Qi completes his transformation.
• Shuhang’s physique advances from Star Radiance to Moon Radiance, equivalent to the physical strength of a Third-Grade cultivator with the second vein, despite his own cultivation remaining at the initial Third Grade.
• Onion Lady realizes Shuhang is unconscious and unguarded, but she is too weak to escape—and admits she no longer feels much desire to do so.
• As Shuhang sleeps, his consciousness enters an unusual state. He sees the Netherworld through an all-around perspective and wonders whether he has entered a dream again, perhaps through his special talent.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang gains confidence in his Lotus-Blossom Tongue’s practical value and shows impressive aptitude with the Gale Saber. His exhausting body-tempering effort demonstrates his determination and rapidly improves his physical strength.
• True Lord Eternal Fire, Su Clan’s Seven, and Venerable White discuss ways Shuhang might profit from his lotus-seed ability, each proposing or negotiating exchanges.
• Onion Lady remains physically helpless but shows a change in attitude: escape no longer seems as important to her.
• The Nine Provinces Number One Group and White Cloud Academy cooperate to finish filming, protect the academy’s key site, and prepare for the coming Netherworld threat.

Significant themes

• Growth through hardship: Shuhang’s physical advancement comes through sustained effort and pain.
• Unexpected value and opportunity: A seemingly odd ability may become a source of resources and cultivation support.
• Changing loyalties and attachment: Onion Lady’s diminished urge to escape suggests her feelings toward Shuhang or her situation may be shifting.
• Threat beneath ordinary life: Filming and cultivation continue even as the group prepares for an imminent demonic attack.

Key plot points and events

• Through his involuntary Dream Entry, Song Shuhang finds himself in the Nine Netherworld, apparently experiencing events through the body of a demon. He suspects his target may be Dragon Cave Master, a Four-Headed Snake Demon, or another being he recently encountered.
• The dream-self joins a silent procession of demons carrying corpses, most of them Confucian School disciples, deep beneath the Nine Netherworld.
• The procession reaches a vast Sage Pool beneath a towering black Evil Lotus. The pool’s clear, sacred waters contain the corpses of Confucian and Buddhist disciples, winged beings, and strange beasts—apparently being used to nourish the lotus.
• Song Shuhang recognizes a winged woman resembling True Lord White Crane, but realizes she is likely a deceased member of White Crane’s clan.
• His emotional reaction coincides with the Evil Lotus trembling, making him fear it has sensed his presence. The demons celebrate as the lotus releases black specks of light.
• The dream-self catches one reward: a black lotus seed patterned with gold. His dragon claws identify him as Dragon Cave Master. A phantom worm swallows the seed, and a mysterious insight begins to enter Song Shuhang’s mind.

Character developments

• Song Shuhang shifts from curiosity about his dream identity to alarm at the demons’ apparent use of sacred corpses to cultivate the Evil Lotus. He tries to control his thoughts in case the lotus can detect him.
• Dragon Cave Master, the figure Song Shuhang inhabits, appears to receive a lotus seed as a merit-based reward and consumes it through a worm-like entity, seemingly gaining an ability or secret technique.
• The apparent death of a White Crane clan member adds personal weight to the horrors Song Shuhang witnesses.

Significant themes

• Corruption of the sacred: Holy waters and righteous spiritual forces are entangled with demonic cultivation.
• Unease and hidden danger: The orderly, silent demon ritual is disturbing precisely because it appears controlled and purposeful.
• Power and reward: The lotus distributes seeds according to merit, suggesting a structured system behind the demons’ cultivation.
• Fate and recurring motifs: Song Shuhang jokes that he has developed “lotus blossom luck” after repeatedly encountering lotus seeds.

Character interactions

• The demons move in disciplined silence, carrying corpses and depositing them in the pool; they avoid approaching it too closely because its sacred power can harm them.
• They wait calmly for the Evil Lotus’s rewards rather than fighting, apparently fearing punishment for taking them by force.
• Song Shuhang has no direct conversation with anyone, but his discovery of the corpse-filled pool leaves him determined to warn Senior White and the others.

Summary

• Dream Entry and the Evil Lotus: In his dream, Song Shuhang experiences the Dragon Cave Master receiving an Evil Lotus Seed’s technique, “Good Teeth, Good Appetite.” It can swallow certain energy-based spells and spit them back at an attacker, but it requires an enhanced mouth and cannot handle physical or indirect attacks such as a summoned meteorite. Shuhang realizes that understanding the technique in a dream does not let him use it awake: the Lotus Seed’s enhancement is essential. He also wonders whether the Evil Lotus is connected to the Confucian Virtuous Golden Lotus, since the Confucian School is collecting Nine Nether Demon corpses.
• Shuhang’s progress: He wakes after successfully completing the Righteous-Qi Body Tempering Chapter. Its feedback has substantially strengthened his constitution, and his Confucian Vajra Body training has advanced his Steel Hand to great mastery. His mental-energy pain has also eased. He is optimistic that combining this progress with Dragon Demon Potion will soon bring his constitution in line with his mental energy.
• Fairy Lychee and Ye Si: Fairy Lychee visits to ask whether her goddaughter, Ye Si, has appeared. She jokes that Shuhang has “stolen” Ye Si away, then praises his improved constitution as making him more worthy of being Ye Si’s master. Ye Si’s mysterious contract with Shuhang has also transferred Lychee’s inexplicable feeling of kinship with Ye Si to him—an intimacy that leaves Lychee exasperated. She takes selfies with Shuhang before bringing him to see the others.
• Preparations at White Cloud Academy: At Venerable White’s luxurious residence, the Nine Provinces Number One Group gathers to discuss the insights and techniques they gained the previous day. White gives Shuhang and the other attendees Disposable Flying Sword 005 escape devices, upgraded with Willow Demon Wood so they can fly faster—even making escape from a Venerable-tier opponent more feasible. The wood comes from branches broken off the Willow Tree Demon Qingwu, prompting Shuhang to hope she can learn a branch-regeneration technique. True Lord Yellow Mountain, who arrived the night before after fighting Netherworld scouts, then steps forward.

Character developments and interactions

Shuhang grows stronger and more confident, while also recognizing the limits of knowledge gained through Dream Entry. Fairy Lychee’s affectionate, aunt-like behavior toward him now mirrors her former closeness to Ye Si, creating comic awkwardness. Venerable White continues preparing the group for danger by distributing escape tools, and the group’s gathering underscores their shared readiness for the coming conflict with the Netherworld.

Significant themes

• Power has practical limits: A formidable technique can be undermined by its requirements and restrictions.
• Understanding is not the same as ability: Shuhang learns the technique’s principles but lacks the physical enhancement needed to use it.
• Growth and preparation: Shuhang’s cultivation advances alongside the group’s efforts to prepare for the Netherworld threat.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter balances cultivation and war preparations with jokes about Lychee’s selfies and Qingwu’s repeatedly harvested branches.

Plot points and events

• The Nine Provinces Number One Group plans how to help White Cloud Academy repel the Nine Nether Demons. Fairy Lychee adds that demon corpses can be exchanged for Virtuous Golden Lotus seeds, which grant fifty extra years of life as well as a chance at a special ability.
• The offer gives the group another reason to fight, especially those with elderly disciples or fellow cultivators nearing the end of their lifespans.
• Song Shuhang remembers the Evil Lotus he encountered during Dream Entry and tries to raise the subject. Before he can, he is pulled into the Infinite Make-Up Exam Space.
• Believing Senior White Two may demand jokes again, Shuhang panics and asks the group for joke reinforcements—then faints. The others assume he has been drawn into the exam space associated with the Thirteen-Tribulation Immortal Statue Beneath the Sage.
• While the group continues its strategy meeting, Yellow Mountain puts the unconscious Shuhang on a bed supplied by Venerable White.
• Inside the space, Shuhang discovers that Senior White Two summoned him. White Two offers important information about the Netherworld demons in exchange for a joke that will cheer him up. Shuhang’s first attempt falls flat, and White Two gives him only two more chances.

Character developments and interactions

• Shuhang is eager to share what he knows about the Evil Lotus, but his fear of being trapped without jokes takes over when he senses himself being summoned.
• Senior White Two appears unusually serious and aloof, withholding useful information until Shuhang entertains him.
• Fairy Lychee catches Shuhang after White Crane tosses him to her, jokingly threatens to spin White Crane like a Wind-Fire Wheel, and then passes Shuhang to Yellow Mountain.
• Yellow Mountain accepts responsibility for Shuhang, while Venerable White’s overly literal offer of a luxurious bed adds to the group’s comic banter.

Significant themes

• Self-interest and mutual aid: The lotus-seed reward encourages cultivators to help defend the academy, while also offering meaningful hope to those nearing the end of their lives.
• Comedy amid danger: A serious discussion of an impending demonic invasion is repeatedly interrupted by Shuhang’s absurd request for jokes and the group’s teasing.
• Information as leverage: Senior White Two turns valuable knowledge into a playful bargain, leaving Shuhang to improvise under pressure.

Plot points and events

• During the make-up exam’s mental-space encounter, Song Shuhang tries to persuade Senior White Two to share urgent intelligence about the Netherworld demons. Senior White Two refuses every approach and insists that Shuhang tell him a joke.
• Shuhang realizes he has no jokes to offer, so he appeals to Senior White Two’s curiosity instead. He describes a cocoon made by spinning silk: it is comfortable to sleep in and hard to leave.
• Intrigued, Senior White Two agrees to obtain a Dragon Demon Potion from Shuhang, which can let someone spin silk and form a cocoon. In exchange, he agrees to share the intelligence, with possible compensation to be discussed later.
• Senior White Two reveals that the Netherworld demons have already entered White Cloud Academy, prepared for battle, and are about to attack. He says the order came from another Netherworld will, not from him.
• Shuhang immediately asks to leave the mental space so he can prepare the potion and, more urgently, warn the others. Senior White Two sends him back.
• Alone, Senior White Two returns to the Netherworld and confronts the enormous Liquid Metal Ball, observing that its plans appear to be nearing a critical stage.

Character developments and interactions

• Song Shuhang shows resourcefulness: unable to bargain with jokes or ordinary information, he finds a novel way to appeal to Senior White Two’s interest. He also prioritizes warning White Cloud Academy once he learns of the impending attack.
• Senior White Two shifts from aloof and unyielding to curious and cooperative when offered the prospect of a cocoon. Though aligned with the Netherworld, he is willing to disclose the attack because it was ordered by another will.
• Their exchange is playful but transactional: Shuhang offers the potion for intelligence, while Senior White Two teases him about making a bad deal and leaves open the possibility of compensation.
• Senior White Two’s final exchange with the Liquid Metal Ball hints at a larger conflict between Netherworld wills and an approaching scheme.

Significant themes

• Resourcefulness under pressure: Shuhang succeeds by adapting to his counterpart rather than repeating failed tactics.
• Information as a bargain: Urgent intelligence has a limited “shelf life,” making the timing of the exchange crucial.
• Conflicting loyalties and hidden power structures: The Netherworld is not acting under a single unified will; Senior White Two and the Liquid Metal Ball appear to have distinct agendas.
• Curiosity as leverage: An unusual, appealing idea proves more effective than direct persuasion.

Plot points and events

• The Liquid Metal Ball boasts to Senior White Two that its plan to conquer the Confucian School is nearly complete. It claims the Netherworld could overwhelm the school, and vows to keep Senior White Two from interfering.
• Senior White Two mocks its confidence, then withdraws into silence while observing the Netherworld. The Liquid Metal Ball counters by masking his perception.
• Song Shuhang wakes among the Nine Provinces Number One Group seniors. They mistakenly assume his repeated calls for “Senior White” in his sleep reflect romantic feelings; he awkwardly denies it and explains that he was reacting to an encounter connected to the Thirteen-Tribulation Immortal Statue.
• Shuhang urgently reports that Netherworld Fiends may have infiltrated White Cloud Academy without breaching its defenses.
• Venerable White and True Lord Yellow Mountain take the warning seriously. Yellow Mountain alerts True Lord Eternal Fire, while White searches for the hidden invaders.
• Unable to detect anything directly, Venerable White uses his “intuition”: he scatters more than eighty Disposable Flying Swords across the sky. One strikes an invisible target, and its explosion reveals a huge, nearly aura-less black cocoon.
• The cocoon’s immense defenses identify it as the Eighth-Grade Nine Nether Demon Broodmother. It is startled to have been discovered.

Character developments and interactions

• Senior White Two remains unfazed by the Liquid Metal Ball’s threats, responding with sarcasm and apparent indifference while continuing to monitor the Netherworld.
• The Liquid Metal Ball is confident but irritated by Senior White Two’s past interference, and takes active steps to suppress his awareness.
• Song Shuhang shifts from embarrassment over the seniors’ teasing to urgency as he delivers intelligence that could prevent a surprise attack.
• Venerable White shows his characteristic confidence and unconventional problem-solving: his seemingly random sword attack succeeds.
• Yellow Mountain and the group’s seniors treat Shuhang’s report as credible and move quickly to prepare the Confucian forces.

Significant themes

• Confidence versus control: The Liquid Metal Ball believes victory is assured, but its plan remains vulnerable to interference.
• Trusting instinct—and luck: Venerable White’s absurdly broad search succeeds where ordinary senses fail.
• Preparedness and vigilance: A hidden enemy can bypass even long-standing defenses, making Shuhang’s warning crucial.
• Humor amid danger: The seniors’ romantic misunderstanding contrasts with the imminent threat to White Cloud Academy.

• The invasion begins: The Nine Nether Demon Mother Nest is exposed when one of Venerable White’s disposable flying swords unexpectedly explodes against it. It opens its many exits, releasing a vast swarm of demons. At the same time, nine more Eighth-Grade Mother Nests appear at key locations in White Cloud Academy, launching a full-scale attack. Confucian disciples meet the invasion in battle.
• The threat is greater than expected: Song Shuhang realizes there are ten Eighth-Grade Mother Nests—far more than Senior White Two’s intelligence predicted. Their presence alone weighs heavily on the defenders.
• Whirlwind Venerable’s dramatic intervention: At True Lord Eternal Fire’s request, Whirlwind Venerable makes a flamboyant entrance and challenges one Mother Nest with the Boundary-Crossing Sect’s complete Space-Cleaving Mother-Child Wheel. He uses its spatial power to avoid the Nest’s devastating attack and trap it in a temporary rift, teleporting it away. He cannot destroy it, however, and nine Mother Nests remain. Young Master Phoenix Slayer, remembering Whirlwind’s irritating showmanship from an earlier event, finds him as annoying as ever.
• The next move: Eternal Fire asks Venerable White to raise the Mother Nest hovering over the Nine Provinces Number One Group by about 700 meters so the academy can use its trump cards. White agrees, saying he will blast it upward. Yellow Mountain is startled by the plan, but White is confident—and suspects something unusual about that particular Nest.
  Character developments and interactions: Whirlwind proves that his theatrical confidence is backed by a powerful spatial weapon, though his victory is limited to removing one foe temporarily. Eternal Fire coordinates with the visiting cultivators and relies on White to handle a critical obstacle. White’s calm confidence contrasts with Yellow Mountain’s alarm, while Shuhang and the other defenders face a threat far beyond their initial expectations.
  Themes: The chapter emphasizes the scale and unpredictability of war, the value—and limits—of powerful weapons, and the need for cooperation when plans go awry. It also uses Whirlwind’s showmanship for comic relief amid the escalating danger.

Key plot points and events

• The Nine Provinces Number One Group prepares to fight the descending Nine Nether Demons, targeting demons Fourth-Grade and above for their valuable remains.
• Venerable White avoids using his full strength, since it would leave him too weak to keep filming. Instead, he uses a jade ball assembled from magical-treasure fragments. The ball vanishes and reappears against the Eighth-Grade Broodmother, then rolls with the power of more than twenty Tribulation Immortals and knocks it a full thousand meters away. It will return to White once its escape array activates.
• White Cloud Academy spends a thousand Eighth-Grade Spirit Stones to activate its defense: ten Sage Scriptures form the Confucian “Filter Net,” a set of layered barriers that sort the demons by strength. The nets hold even the Eighth-Grade Broodmothers, while weaker demons are stopped at progressively inner layers.
• Confucian scholar Su Wenqu distributes talismans that let fighters pass through the nets. The nets also provide footholds, allowing cultivators to fight in the air.
• Su Clan’s Seven offers to carry Song Shuhang upward. Venerable White heads to the Fourth-Grade demon layer, with Fairy Lychee filming. He cuts down dozens of demons quickly, but his remaining targets flee, frustrating his attempt to film a heroic “seven times in and seven times out” scene.

Character developments and interactions

• Venerable White shows both immense power and playful priorities: he finds a way to repel the Broodmother without exhausting himself, chiefly so he can continue filming. He eagerly starts fighting once the camera is ready.
• Song Shuhang is impressed by White’s jade ball and asks practical questions about reaching and fighting in the net layers.
• True Lord Yellow Mountain asks how White will complete the mission and recognizes the scale of his strength.
• Su Wenqu arrives with the Confucian plan and explains how the nets and talismans work.
• Su Clan’s Seven and Sixteen join Shuhang as he prepares to ascend; Sixteen appears cheerful and ready for battle.
• Fairy Lychee takes responsibility for filming White’s performance.

Significant themes

• Preparation and cooperation: White Cloud Academy’s layered defenses and the group’s coordinated roles make the battlefield manageable.
• Power mixed with humor: A treasure carrying the aura of more than twenty Tribulation Immortals is used like a volleyball, while White treats combat as a film shoot.
• Resourcefulness: The defenders use tailored tools—the Filter Net, talismans, and White’s repurposed jade ball—to solve problems without relying solely on brute force.

Key plot points and events

• Venerable White moves Willow Tree Demon and Fairy Lychee up to the Fifth-Grade Fiend Filter Net, intending to create a dramatic “killing seven in and seven out” battle. The Confucian disciples take advantage of the frightened fiends to attack.
• Su Clan’s Seven leaves Song Shuhang and Su Clan’s Sixteen on the Third-Grade layer, warning Shuhang to keep Sixteen from going berserk. The pair are quickly surrounded by intelligent fiends.
• The fiends sexually harass both Sixteen and Shuhang, then secretly arrange themselves for a coordinated assault. Sixteen recognizes the tactic and signals when they are vulnerable.
• Shuhang opens with the Buddhist Lion’s Roar, stunning the fiends. Sixteen follows with a sweeping saber attack, while Shuhang kills the insect-like fiend that had targeted him.
• A beast-like fiend recovers from the roar early, fakes being stunned, and launches a counterattack at Shuhang. The chapter ends as it expects his bare hand to be unable to stop its claws.

Character developments

• Song Shuhang stays composed despite the fiends’ taunts, uses his training and timing effectively, and shows confidence in his combat skills. He is also quick to protect Sixteen.
• Su Clan’s Sixteen remains capable and tactical: she spots the enemies’ formation, chooses the right moment to strike, and enjoys Shuhang’s embarrassment when the fiends harass him too.
• Venerable White treats the battle with playful theatricality, while Fairy Lychee joins in the joking.
• Su Clan’s Seven shows concern for the younger pair, particularly Sixteen’s tendency to get carried away in battle.

Significant themes

• Humor amid danger: The fiends’ absurd, repeated pickup lines contrast with the real threat of the battle.
• Skill and timing: Shuhang and Sixteen exploit the brief opening before the coordinated attack can begin.
• Appearances can deceive: The beast fiend pretends to remain stunned, turning Shuhang’s apparent advantage into a trap.
• Protection and teamwork: Shuhang and Sixteen coordinate their attacks while watching out for one another.

Character interactions

• Fairy Lychee jokes with Venerable White about threatening the fiends, while a straightforward Confucian disciple questions the plan.
• Su Clan’s Seven teases Sixteen about going berserk; she denies it.
• The fiends harass Sixteen, then redirect their attention to Shuhang. Their shared embarrassment and amusement briefly lighten the scene before the fighting begins.
• Sixteen gives the signal, and she and Shuhang attack in tandem.