Chapter Summaries

Fang Meiyun struggled with the attention of Xiao Xiaole and Meng Zihao, then discovered both men had secretly entered her residence. Meanwhile, Tang Zhuo planted a jade cucumber in a Jade Maiden Sect disciple’s room just before the Disciplinary Hall arrived to inspect it.

• Fang Meiyun changed her aged face into her younger appearance and reflected on her lost youth.
• Xiao Xiaole grabbed Fang Meiyun’s wrist and tried to comfort her, while she angrily confronted him about his past abandonment.
• Fang Meiyun found and crushed Meng Zihao’s listening artifact, then dragged him out of a cabinet and threw him beyond the sect.
• Xiao Xiaole was thrown out of Fang Meiyun’s residence in torn clothes and joked to the watching disciples that his wife had beaten him.
• Tang Zhuo entered a fiery-tempered Golden Core disciple’s residence, hid a white jade cucumber beneath her pillow, and left.
• Two Disciplinary Hall disciples arrived for a routine inspection, and the disciple told them to finish quickly while she was away in the back mountain.

Liu Xiaozhen and another Disciplinary Hall disciple framed Wu Qian with a jade cucumber and punished her, sparking a brawl between the Disciplinary Hall and disciples from other halls. Tang Yu escalated the fight by crippling several Disciplinary Hall disciples, and the elders’ intervention led to another sect-wide confrontation between the factions.

• Liu Xiaozhen and her junior sister found a jade cucumber in Wu Qian’s cave abode and used an enforcement token to summon and punish her.
• Liu Xiaozhen lashed Wu Qian ten times, and Wu Qian retaliated by striking Liu Xiaozhen and her junior sister.
• Disciples from several halls joined the fight after Disciplinary Hall disciples confronted Wu Qian, turning it into a large brawl.
• Tang Yu used Meng Zihao’s sword qi to shatter one Disciplinary Hall disciple’s Golden Core and cripple several others.
• The elders stopped the fighting and disputed whether Wu Qian should be punished, prompting another sect-wide meeting and renewed factional tensions.

Fang Meiyun lost the Jade Maiden Sect leadership after a dispute between the Disciplinary Hall and other halls exposed the damage her rules and relationship with Meng Zihao and Xiao Xiaole had caused. The deputy sect master took over and reversed Fang Meiyun’s policies, while Ning Qingyan was released from confinement and called for Tang Yu.

• A Disciplinary Hall elder accused Wu Qian of insulting Fang Meiyun and attacking Disciplinary Hall disciples, but Liu Xiaozhen and Wu Qian both swore upon the Great Dao and suffered no backlash.
• Liu Xiaozhen said Wu Qian had insulted Fang Meiyun, and the deer-riding deputy sect master challenged Fang Meiyun over the sect’s rules and rumors about Meng Zihao and Xiao Xiaole.
• After reading a scandalous painting about the three of them, Fang Meiyun accepted blame and offered to resign; the ancestor approved her departure.
• The deputy sect master assumed the duties of sect master, ended the dispute, and overturned Fang Meiyun’s policies by pardoning punished disciples and returning their spirit stones.
• Ning Qingyan was released from the Azure Water Formation, returned to her cave dwelling, and softly called for Tang Yu.

Tang Yu visited Ning Qingyan after arranging her release from the Azure Water Formation and persuaded her to pursue the Jade Maiden Sect leadership and cultivate with him. Their conversation was interrupted when Spring Blossom arrived to retrieve Tang Yu, whom she believed was her pet cat, and invited Ning Qingyan to the hot springs with him.

• Tang Yu told Ning Qingyan he had helped secure her release and explained how Xiao Xiaole had confronted Meng Zihao over her master.
• Ning Qingyan accepted that her master’s leadership had failed the Jade Maiden Sect and decided she should become sect master.
• Tang Yu offered to teach Ning Qingyan the Joyous Union Sect’s soul-cultivation method, arguing that their alliance could ease tensions between their sects.
• Spring Blossom entered looking for her cat, picked up Tang Yu, and kissed him while Ning Qingyan learned that Spring Blossom considered him her pet.
• Spring Blossom invited Ning Qingyan and Tang Yu to join her at the hot springs.

Ning Qingyan joined Spring Blossom and the other Jade Maiden Sect disciples at the hot springs, where she kept Tang Yu close and learned about events in the sect. After they left, Ning Qingyan told Tang Yu that Fang Meiyun wanted to see him, then went to meet her former master, who was still struggling with losing her position as sect master.

• Spring Blossom persuaded Ning Qingyan to come with her and Tang Yu to the Jade Maiden Sect hot springs.
• Ning Qingyan sealed Tang Yu's eyes, then held him in the spring while her junior sisters played with him.
• Ning Qingyan changed the conversation and asked the disciples about recent events in the sect.
• After the bath, Ning Qingyan took the sleeping Tang Yu away and told him Fang Meiyun wanted to see him.
• Ning Qingyan flew to Fang Meiyun's cave dwelling, where Fang Meiyun sat in her garden, unable to accept that she had lost the sect master's position.

Fang Meiyun, angered by the Jade Maiden Sect’s rejection of her ideals, decided to leave and establish a new sect with Xiao Xiaole and Meng Zihao. She severed her bond with Ning Qingyan when her disciple refused to leave, and asked Xiao Xiaole to kill Tang Yu in exchange for becoming his Dao companion.

• Fang Meiyun blamed the sect’s acting leader for the foreign jade cucumbers and proposed starting a new sect, which Elder Feizhu supported.
• Ning Qingyan refused to leave the Jade Maiden Sect, so Fang Meiyun expelled her and severed their master-disciple bond.
• Fang Meiyun asked Xiao Xiaole to become the new sect’s chief offering and kill Tang Yu, promising to become his Dao companion if he succeeded.
• Meng Zihao agreed to join Fang Meiyun’s new sect, and she told him she could only accept him as a brother and sister; he accepted.

After Fang Meiyun rejected Meng Zihao but asked him to treat her as a younger sister, Ning Qingyan returned to her cave abode heartbroken after Fang Meiyun severed their ties. Tang Yu taught Ning Qingyan a soul-cultivation method, and after their practice left her furious with him, Meng Zihao appeared to confide in Tang Yu.

• Fang Meiyun rejected Meng Zihao but asked him to be her big brother, and he left feeling dejected.
• Ning Qingyan told Tang Yu that Fang Meiyun had expelled her after she refused to join her independent sect, and Tang Yu encouraged her to focus on reviving the Jade Maiden Sect.
• Tang Yu taught Ning Qingyan a cultivation method, which she mastered after nearly three days of instruction.
• Tang Yu and Ning Qingyan practiced the method together with a flute and guzheng, and their souls intertwined as they cultivated.
• Ning Qingyan accused Tang Yu of lying about the practice affecting only their souls, then threw him out of her cave abode.
• Meng Zihao appeared behind Tang Yu and praised his rapidly advancing cultivation, and Tang Yu realized Meng Zihao wanted to confide in him.

Tang Yu helped Meng Zihao realize that his Dao lay in self-abasement, prompting him to leave and pursue swordsmanship. After Fang Meiyun departed the Jade Maiden Sect and Ning Qingyan broke through, Tang Yu said goodbye to her and secretly left Spring Blossom five hundred high-grade spirit stones as thanks.

• On a mountaintop, Tang Yu told Meng Zihao to turn his self-abasement into a Dao, and Meng Zihao realized he was close to breaking through to the Integration Realm.
• Meng Zihao said he had let go of Fang Meiyun, then left to enter seclusion and promised to visit the Joyous Union Sect afterward.
• Fang Meiyun left the Jade Maiden Sect with several elders and more than twenty disciples, while Ning Qingyan remained behind.
• Ning Qingyan broke through to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, and Tang Yu revealed himself after Spring Blossom and the others left her cave abode.
• Tang Yu said goodbye to Ning Qingyan, then left Spring Blossom five hundred high-grade spirit stones with a note reading “Repaying Kindness.”

Spring Blossom discovered Tang Yu had left her five hundred high-grade spirit stones as repayment, while Tang Yu stopped Xiao Xiaole from killing him and persuaded him to cooperate. Xiao Xiaole returned to Fang Meiyun with a soul trapped in a Soul-Imprisoning Sand, leaving her eager to refine it while delaying her promised intimacy with him.

• Spring Blossom found a note and five hundred high-grade spirit stones from Tang Yu, then decided to keep his repayment secret.
• Xiao Xiaole confronted Tang Yu, but withdrew his attack after sensing the soul fragment of Tang Yu’s sect ancestor and listened as Tang Yu proposed working together.
• Tang Yu identified Xiao Xiaole’s lingering obsession with Fang Meiyun and suggested their goals could be aligned.
• Xiao Xiaole returned to Fang Meiyun with a Soul-Imprisoning Sand containing Tang Yu’s soul, claiming he had stolen it in a dream.
• Fang Meiyun chose to refine Tang Yu into a puppet and wore the Soul-Imprisoning Sand as an ornament, then asked Xiao Xiaole to wait a few more days before they became intimate.

After leaving Xiao Xiaole, Fang Meiyun was ambushed by Baye Hongyuan, a system-bound cultivator whose task was to grope her, but her hidden spatial restriction killed him. Tang Yu took Baye Hongyuan’s mask and storage ring, then returned Fang Meiyun’s ring while remaining concealed in the Soul-Imprisoning Sand.

• Fang Meiyun flew away to buy supplies for her new sect, while Tang Yu secretly noticed that someone was following her.
• Baye Hongyuan revealed himself after Fang Meiyun trapped him with ice mirrors, then used a Time Freeze Talisman to immobilize her and steal her storage ring.
• Baye Hongyuan tried to complete his system’s task by groping Fang Meiyun, but her spatial restriction swallowed and killed him.
• Tang Yu collected Baye Hongyuan’s storage ring and mask, returned Fang Meiyun’s ring, and examined the unusual smiling mask.

Fang Meiyun returned to the sect, shared a wedding night with Xiao Xiaole, and believed his assurances that he loved only her. After taking her outside to admire the moon, Xiao Xiaole suddenly killed her and left behind her belongings and the Soul-Imprisoning Sand.

• Fang Meiyun woke after Tang Yu’s attack, checked that her virginity was intact, and destroyed the corpse hidden in her spatial restriction.
• Fang Meiyun returned to the sect with supplies, where Xiao Xiaole showed her the floating-island cave abode he had built for them.
• Fang Meiyun and Xiao Xiaole drank cross-cupped wine, kissed, and reconciled after she questioned his experience.
• After they spent the night together, Fang Meiyun tried Xiao Xiaole’s smoking pipe and went with him to admire the moon.
• Xiao Xiaole pierced Fang Meiyun’s body, killing her as she crumbled into ashes and leaving her robe, storage ring, and bracelet containing Tang Yu.

Xiao Xiaole killed Fang Meiyun and left, but Fang Meiyun survived by possessing a sow and vowed revenge. Back at the Joyous Union Sect, Tang Yu activated the mask and entered a strange space where masked cultivators gathered on thrones.

• Xiao Xiaole congratulated himself on eliminating his inner demon, then killed the Jade Maiden Sect elders and disciples who flew up to investigate Fang Meiyun's death.
• Tang Yu collected the scattered valuables as Xiao Xiaole departed.
• Fang Meiyun used a life-preserving divine ability to possess an old sow, killed the farmer who had been beating it, and swore to kill Xiao Xiaole and destroy all men.
• Tang Yu returned to the Joyous Union Sect and showed Liu Yanlan the mask; after she could not identify its restriction, he put it on and entered a strange space.
• A masked sword-bearing Daoist appeared on a throne of burning skulls and asked Tang Yu whether he had killed the mask's former owner.

Tang Yu met a long-lived Taoist in the mask’s inner world and learned that Defying Heaven Is Hard was an organization of cultivators pursuing Great Daos outside the Three Thousand Great Daos. After telling Liu Yanlan about it, he tried to persuade her that she needed a Dao companion to reach the Fusion Realm, but she threw him out of the main hall.

• The Taoist argued with a phantom about his practice of killing simps, then praised Tang Yu when he agreed that simps deserved punishment.
• Tang Yu learned that Defying Heaven Is Hard had twelve mask-bearing members, pursued heretical Great Daos, and had produced six Immortal Emperors who protected members nearing ascension.
• The Taoist asked Tang Yu to help protect his Dao when he eventually tried to ascend, then left the inner space.
• Tang Yu returned to Liu Yanlan after only a few breaths had passed outside, despite having spent more than an hour inside.
• Tang Yu told Liu Yanlan about the organization, and she praised his opportunities and suggested he would soon take on the sect’s responsibilities.
• Tang Yu claimed Liu Yanlan needed a good man to help her reach the Fusion Realm and offered himself, so she picked him up and threw him out while his voice carried through the main hall.

Tang Yu returned to Cluster Jade Pavilion, teased Nangong Ying, and entered seclusion to break through to the Soul Formation Stage. After emerging a week later with spatial power mastered, he was named Vice Sect Master of the Joyous Union Sect.

• Nangong Ying complained that Tang Yu favored Liu Yanlan, but eagerly accepted his storage rings and the riches he had taken from Fang Meiyun’s family.
• Tang Yu kissed Nangong Ying and tried to take their intimacy further, but she stopped him and urged him to enter seclusion for his breakthrough.
• Tang Yu entered seclusion, prompting the Joyous Union Sect’s Supreme Elders to gather at Cluster Jade Pavilion to protect him.
• After one week, Tang Yu emerged having reached the Soul Formation Stage and demonstrated that he could tear open space.
• Liu Yanlan appointed Tang Yu Vice Sect Master, and he joked that she was giving up her position so she could have his children.

Tang Yu and Liu Yanlan traveled to the Seven Sects Conference at Myriad Dharma Sect to coordinate aid for the Li Tang Sect against the sea demons. The sects committed forces to the campaign, and Li Tang Sect Master Wang Yuan ended the meeting’s opening by thanking them and declaring they would win.

• Liu Yanlan told Tang Yu that they would attend the Seven Sects Conference to discuss sending aid to the Li Tang Sect against the sea demons in the Nether Sea.
• Tang Yu designed a nun’s outfit while waiting for Nangong Ying, then joined Liu Yanlan when she called him to leave for the conference.
• Tang Yu and Liu Yanlan arrived at Myriad Dharma Sect, where Tang Yu spotted Ning Qingyan and Amber among the attending leaders and representatives.
• Myriad Dharma Sect Master Chen Ziyun introduced Wang Yuan as the Li Tang Sect’s new master, and Wang Yuan gave the attendees pipes and tobacco as gifts.
• The sects and clans listed the forces they would send, including Tang Yu leading Joyous Union Sect’s contingent and Jade Maiden Sect sending six Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Wang Yuan thanked the assembled factions for their support and declared that they would win the coming battle.

Tang Yu backed Amber’s Treasure Pavilion in its dispute with Qin Wujian’s Edgeless Sect, turning a complaint over Bao Laifu’s massacre into a demand for compensation. Qin rejected the demand and left after declaring that the Edgeless Sect would face both sects; afterward, Liu Yanlan confronted Tang Yu about his alliance with Amber.

• Wang Yuan left the gathering, and Chen Ziyun resumed the meeting by raising the dispute between the Treasure Pavilion and the Edgeless Sect.
• Amber accused Qin Wujian’s disciple Bao Laifu of killing hundreds of thousands in the Yellow Millet Kingdom and demanded that the Edgeless Sect answer for it.
• Qin refused to explain Bao Laifu’s actions, and Amber threatened punishment if the Treasure Pavilion’s rules were violated again.
• Tang Yu proposed that the Edgeless Sect compensate the Treasure Pavilion and the Joyous Union Sect, and Amber demanded three million five hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones or the Edgeless Sect’s spirit vein.
• Qin declared that the Edgeless Sect awaited the challenge of both sects and left the meeting with his vice sect master.
• Liu Yanlan took Tang Yu to her flying ship and questioned whether he had planned his alliance with Amber in advance, while Tang Yu teased her about being jealous.

Tang Yu explained the plan to confront the Edgeless Sect over Bao Laifu’s attacks on mortals while using the incident to establish rules across the south. After joking with Liu Yanlan and Amber about business and clothing, he prepared to travel to Yellow Millet Kingdom to resolve the matter.

• Tang Yu told Liu Yanlan that Bao Laifu had grown up in Mountain Green Kingdom, joined the Edgeless Sect, and later attacked Yellow Millet Kingdom in revenge for his father’s death.
• Liu Yanlan questioned the risk of conflict with the Edgeless Sect, and Tang Yu said Amber had prepared a backup plan and that their goal was to stabilize the south.
• Tang Yu flirted with Liu Yanlan, who sent him flying off the ship before leaving.
• Tang Yu met Amber, discussed improving their shampoo and its fragrance, and gave her a nun’s habit to try on.
• Amber offered to make Tang Yu deputy sect master of the Treasure Pavilion, but he declined to leave the Joyous Union Sect.
• Tang Yu told Amber he planned to travel to Yellow Millet Kingdom to settle the matter, and she agreed to handle the rest.

Amber faced internal opposition after confronting the Edgeless Sect, and she suspected Huangfu Wuwei might be behind the trouble. Tang Yu left for Mountain Green Kingdom to draw out Bao Laifu, the sword cultivator who had killed mortals.

• Huangfu Wuwei questioned Amber's decision to confront the Edgeless Sect, but she insisted she had considered the Treasure Pavilion's interests.
• Tang Yu joked with Amber, who gave him tobacco and said she suspected Huangfu Wuwei was behind the incident.
• Amber explained that her rules protecting mortals had made enemies among Treasure Pavilion cultivators, especially those led by the Huangfu Clan.
• Amber declined Tang Yu's offer to have Huangfu Wuwei killed and said she would use the conflict to root out internal enemies if he was involved.
• Tang Yu passed Yellow Millet Kingdom during a ritual for the mortals Bao Laifu had killed, then flew toward Mountain Green Kingdom to lure Bao Laifu out.

Tang Yu visited Great Harvest County, where he encountered fans of his illustrated stories before gathering information around town. He joined Butcher Zhang’s son’s wedding feast, but constables arrived before the meal was finished.

• Tang Yu used his spatial power to teleport several reckless young riders into a wealthy household’s latrine.
• Tang Yu visited a bookstore and argued with the devoted reader Ao Xuan about which of Painting Saint Tang’s works was best.
• Ao Xuan praised the deceased Fairy Meiyun, then left after Tang Yu questioned his admiration for her.
• Tang Yu spread his divine sense across Great Harvest County to gather information, then went to a wedding in Fireworks Alley.
• The groom welcomed Tang Yu as a guest, and Tang Yu ate and drank with the wedding party until a group of constables rushed in.

Tang Yu intervened when Constable Liu and his men disrupted Zhang Haoran’s wedding to arrest him and seize his bride, then killed the officials and cultivators sent after them. He remained at the wedding feast and challenged the county authorities to keep coming, while Zhang Haoran questioned his indiscriminate killing.

• Constable Liu accused Zhang Haoran of recklessly discussing state affairs, arrested him, and tried to take his bride for Landlord He.
• Tang Yu killed Constable Liu and several constables, then sent a surviving constable back to warn Magistrate Qian.
• Magistrate Qian dismissed the danger, but the assistant magistrate avoided involvement and a constable carrying Qian’s orders died suddenly.
• Tang Yu assured Zhang Haoran’s family that the authorities would not trouble them, while Magistrate Qian sent Three Fires Daoist and armed men to confront him.
• Tang Yu killed Three Fires Daoist and the accompanying officials, then told the county lieutenant to tell the magistrate to send more people.
• Zhang Haoran questioned Tang Yu’s killing of the constables, and Tang Yu said everyone involved deserved to die and that he was not a good person.