Chapter Summaries

Lu Ye bought the supposedly efficiency-boosting Taotie Meal technique from Chen He for three Spirit Stones, then discovered its simple circulation route and wondered how it worked. He continued toward the Crimson Blood Sect camp, knowing the journey would take a long time but traveling with Yiyi and Big Tiger.

• Chen He swore a Heaven's Mystery Oath that his technique was genuine, and Lu Ye bought it for three Spirit Stones after Chen He accepted his low offer.
• A cultivator told Lu Ye that the technique was useless and admitted he had been scammed too; Lu Ye suggested the man sell it himself, then rode away on Big Tiger.
• Lu Ye identified the technique as Taotie Meal and found that its fifteen Spiritual Apertures mostly overlapped with those of his Golden Cicada Free and Unfettered Art.
• Lu Ye compared his route on the Ten-Part Map and calculated that reaching the Crimson Blood Sect camp would take a very long time.

After half a month on the road, Lu Ye reached Sky-Rending Gorge with Big Tiger and Yiyi, having advanced to twenty-five opened apertures. When Big Tiger sensed Yiyi was in trouble, Lu Ye followed it to a camp where four cultivators had trapped her inside a Spiritual Artifact.

• Lu Ye arrived at Sky-Rending Gorge and studied the map, noting the nearby Nine Stars Sect and Mystic Gate camps.
• Lu Ye chose a rocky campsite for the night while Yiyi went to scout the area.
• Lu Ye worried that Big Tiger's growing appetite for Spirit Nurturing Pills would leave him short of pills for cultivation.
• Big Tiger sensed that Yiyi was in danger and raced toward her, with Lu Ye following on its back.
• Lu Ye found Yiyi trapped inside a great bell Spiritual Artifact guarded by four cultivators at Spirit Stream Tiers Two through Four.

Lu Ye and Big Tiger ambushed four cultivators to rescue Yiyi, who was trapped inside a Mystic Spirit Bell. After Big Tiger charged in, Lu Ye used a Fire Serpent Talisman to break through the body cultivator's defenses and cut his throat, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Lu Ye and Big Tiger watched the four cultivators and learned that the young master had trapped Yiyi inside his Mystic Spirit Bell.
• Brother Zhang punched the bell and injured Yiyi, provoking Big Tiger to charge out of hiding.
• Lu Ye followed Big Tiger and rushed toward the young master, but the solidly built body cultivator blocked his path.
• Lu Ye launched a Fire Serpent Talisman at the body cultivator, who endured the flames with a Golden Body Talisman and charged back at him.
• Lu Ye slashed the body cultivator's throat with his saber, leaving the man gasping as his hammer fell.

Lu Ye killed two of Zhang Wu’s companions and captured the young master, forcing Zhang Wu to release Yiyi from the Mystic Spirit Bell. After Yiyi escaped, Lu Ye shoved the young master away and killed him, leaving Zhang Wu furious.

• Lu Ye used his saber and Spiritual Patterns to kill the Body Cultivator and the woman, then captured the young master.
• Zhang Wu’s attack sent Big Tiger crashing into a rock wall, but Lu Ye held the young master hostage and demanded that Yiyi be released.
• Lu Ye stabbed the young master’s thigh and cut off his arm when Zhang Wu delayed, forcing the young master to recall the Mystic Spirit Bell.
• Yiyi escaped the bell and joined Big Tiger, while Zhang Wu offered a Heaven’s Mystery Oath in exchange for the young master’s release.
• Lu Ye shoved the young master forward and then cut his throat, prompting Zhang Wu to roar in anger.

Lu Ye, Big Tiger, and Yiyi fought Zhang Wu and the young master, killing the young master and leaving Zhang Wu gravely wounded. As Zhang Wu invoked the Nine Stars Sect and attacked again, Lu Ye noticed a red glow on his hand, and the clash continued.

• Lu Ye kicked the wounded young master toward Zhang Wu and stabbed through the young master's chest as Zhang Wu caught him.
• Big Tiger and Yiyi attacked Zhang Wu together, helping Lu Ye drive his saber through Zhang Wu's chest.
• The young master fell dead, while Zhang Wu survived with a severe wound and threatened Lu Ye with the Nine Stars Sect's revenge.
• Zhang Wu activated a red glow on the back of his hand, and Lu Ye charged him as Big Tiger and Yiyi joined the fight again.
• Zhang Wu kicked Big Tiger away, blasted Yiyi off his back, and sent a streak of saber light toward Lu Ye.

Lu Ye killed Zhang Wu after a brutal battle, then collapsed while fleeing with Big Tiger and Yiyi. At the battlefield, Cao Ye ordered a search for the saber-wielding youth, and Wang Yang of the Mystic Gate appeared before him.

• Lu Ye used the Defense Spirit Pattern and fought alongside Big Tiger and Yiyi to kill Zhang Wu, but suffered severe wounds and exhausted much of his Spiritual Power.
• Lu Ye gathered the Storage Bags and Mystic Spirit Bell, then rode Big Tiger toward Sky-Rending Gorge before passing out.
• Cao Ye arrived at the battlefield, examined the dead disciples, and ordered a search for a youth traveling with a White Tiger.
• Cao Ye issued rewards for clues, killing, or capturing the fugitive, and inferred that the youth had greater strength than Zhang Wu's message indicated.
• Wang Yang appeared from the darkness, and Cao Ye recognized the stronger Mystic Gate cultivator as a dangerous adversary.

After learning that a youth with a White Tiger had killed the Nine Stars Sect’s young master, Wang Yang launched a hunt while Cao Ye escaped to report to Dong Shuye. The Nine Stars Sect began sealing off the area, and Cao Ye planned to retrieve the young master’s body the next day.

• Wang Yang questioned Cao Ye about the young master’s killer, then attacked the Nine Stars Sect group with Xiao Zhu when Cao Ye tried to flee.
• Wang Yang and Xiao Zhu killed two of the three Nine Stars Sect disciples, while Cao Ye and the remaining disciple escaped.
• Wang Yang ordered Xiao Zhu to begin a hunt and watch for the youth with a White Tiger.
• Cao Ye returned to the Nine Stars Sect camp wounded and told Dong Shuye that Wang Yang had confronted him.
• Dong Shuye and Cao Ye concluded that the Mystic Gate had probably not killed the young master, and Cao Ye said he would retrieve the body the next day.

Lu Ye woke from a day and night of unconsciousness inside Sky-Rending Gorge, where the Nine Stars Sect was searching for him after he killed their young master and Zhang Five. He reassured Yiyi that rescuing her was his responsibility, then warned that they might have to part ways if she could not control Amber.

• Lu Ye woke in a passage inside Sky-Rending Gorge and found that Yiyi had bound his wounds while he was unconscious.
• Yiyi told Lu Ye that Nine Stars Sect cultivators were searching nearby and that they had become lost in the gorge's maze.
• Lu Ye reasoned that he could not face the Nine Stars Sect alone and hoped the nearby Mystic Gate might intervene, though he could not approach them directly.
• Yiyi apologized for getting trapped by the Mystic Spirit Bell, but Lu Ye told her that saving her had been the right thing to do.
• Lu Ye said they might have to go their separate ways if Yiyi could not control Amber, leaving her confused.

After rescuing Yiyi, Lu Ye recovered in a passage inside Sky-Rending Gorge and prepared to advance to Spirit Stream Tier Three. He broke through the Twenty-Seventh Aperture and began his advancement, leaving his cultivation surging around him.

• Yiyi scolded Amber for rushing into danger during her rescue, and Lu Ye warned them not to repeat the mistake.
• Lu Ye discovered that his Twenty-Sixth Aperture barrier had loosened and checked his Merit, which had risen to thirty-four after he killed four cultivators.
• Lu Ye replenished his Spiritual Power while Yiyi and Amber watched both ends of the passage.
• After recovering, Lu Ye decided to raise his cultivation before leaving the passage, then opened and filled his Twenty-Seventh Aperture.
• Lu Ye circulated Spiritual Power through his apertures until he broke through the bottleneck and began advancing to Spirit Stream Tier Three.

After recovering and reaching Spirit Stream Tier Three, Lu Ye left his hiding place with Yiyi and Big Tiger as Mystic Gate and Nine Stars Sect fought across Sky-Rending Gorge. He discovered the war declaration made the two sides easy to identify and watched a Mystic Gate group being overwhelmed, leaving him poised to use the conflict to escape.

• Lu Ye completed the Golden Cicada Free and Unfettered Art, advanced to Spirit Stream Tier Three, and assessed how his cultivation and combat skills had improved.
• After his injuries healed, Lu Ye left the tunnel with Yiyi and Big Tiger, intending to rely on Mystic Gate’s strength to get out of Sky-Rending Gorge.
• Lu Ye sent Yiyi ahead to scout while he and Big Tiger followed, then watched seven cultivators fight in a gorge passage.
• Lu Ye noticed that the fighters’ hand marks glowed in different colors, revealing which cultivators belonged to Mystic Gate and Nine Stars Sect.
• Wang Yang used Mystic Gate’s Heaven’s Mystery Pillar to declare war on Nine Stars Sect, forcing Dong Shuye to accept and causing the Battlefield Marks to identify each side during combat.

Lu Ye and Amber ambushed the three Nine Stars Sect cultivators who were driving the Mystic Gate cultivators into despair. Lu Ye killed all three enemies in a brief fight, leaving the Mystic Gate cultivators stunned.

• A Mystic Gate cultivator activated a Golden Wheel Talisman, but the Nine Stars Sect cultivators blocked its attacks with a defensive Spiritual Artifact.
• Lu Ye and Amber charged in from behind the Mystic Gate cultivators, and Lu Ye immediately attacked the Tier Four Nine Stars Sect cultivator.
• Lu Ye pierced the Tier Four cultivator's chest, blocked his counterattack with the Defense Spirit Pattern, and beheaded him.
• A Tier Three cultivator wounded Lu Ye, but Lu Ye killed him with a saber strike after his sword broke against it.
• Lu Ye and Amber joined forces to kill the final Tier Three cultivator, wiping out all three Nine Stars Sect cultivators in about ten breaths.

Lu Ye traded the spoils from his fight for Spiritual Pills from four Mystic Gate cultivators, then continued through Sky-Rending Gorge. He encountered two Nine Stars Sect cultivators who mistook him for an ally, and attacked as soon as they revealed their camp.

• Lu Ye returned to the four Mystic Gate cultivators, exchanged the spoils he had collected for their sixteen Spiritual Pills, and rode away.
• The Mystic Gate group gathered the returned equipment and decided to head back to the Camp to recover.
• Lu Ye checked his gains, saw his Merit rise from thirty-four to fifty-six, treated his wound, and continued through the gorge.
• Yiyi reported that two cultivators were approaching, so Lu Ye hid Amber and went to meet them.
• The two Spirit Stream Tier Three cultivators assumed Lu Ye belonged to their camp and invited him to travel with them.
• When one cultivator revealed his glowing Battlefield Mark, Lu Ye recognized them as targets and charged with his saber.

Lu Ye spent several days hunting Nine Stars Sect cultivators in Sky-Rending Gorge, improving his combat skills and accumulating Spiritual Pills and Merit. As Mystic Gate and Nine Stars Sect squads grew larger, he joined a major battle and swooped in to attack an enemy, drawing a complaint from a Mystic Gate cultivator whose kill he had stolen.

• Lu Ye rested in a mountain passage after three battles, counted his Merit, and replenished his Spiritual Power with Spiritual Pills.
• Lu Ye hunted enemies for several days, learned how Merit was calculated, and became more effective in combat.
• Lu Ye found that Nine Stars Sect had guarded the only exit from Sky-Rending Gorge and had begun deploying larger squads to hunt him.
• Mystic Gate and Nine Stars Sect cultivators fought a battle involving nearly twenty people, and Big Tiger's roar announced Lu Ye's arrival.
• Big Tiger knocked down a Spirit Stream Tier Three enemy while Lu Ye attacked a Spirit Stream Tier Four cultivator, prompting a Mystic Gate fighter to protest that Lu Ye had stolen his kill.

Lu Ye fought alongside Chu Tian and the Mystic Gate cultivators to destroy a Nine Stars Sect group, then accepted compensation and a contact mark while refusing an invitation to visit the Mystic Gate. He rode away after Chu Tian warned him that a Boundless Island cultivator might be among the Nine Stars Sect.

• Lu Ye and Chu Tian killed the Nine Stars Sect cultivator they had cornered, and Chu Tian claimed the red light that emerged from the dead man’s hand.
• The Mystic Gate defeated the Nine Stars Sect group, losing three cultivators while Lu Ye and the survivors were wounded.
• Chu Tian asked Lu Ye’s name, and Lu Ye introduced himself as One Leaf before refusing Wang Yang’s invitation to visit the Mystic Gate.
• Lu Ye agreed to exchange information with the Mystic Gate, and Chu Tian sent a blue light into Lu Ye’s Battlefield Mark.
• Chu Tian warned Lu Ye that a Boundless Island cultivator might be with the Nine Stars Sect, and Lu Ye rode away on Amber.

Mystic Gate’s Wang Yang learned that Lu Ye, known as Mountain Crossing Tiger and One Leaf, had killed many Nine Stars Sect cultivators and could cast a powerful defensive Spiritual Pattern. He refused to help Lu Ye, ordered the war against Nine Stars Sect intensified, and prepared to end it quickly so his larger plan could begin.

• Chu Tian told Wang Yang that Mountain Crossing Tiger had refused the invitation to visit the Mystic Gate camp.
• Xiao Zhu reported that Mountain Crossing Tiger called himself One Leaf, carried a fine Spiritual Artifact, and could cast a defensive Spiritual Pattern powerful enough to block attacks from Spirit Stream Tier Four cultivators.
• Wang Yang concluded that Lu Ye was a disciple of a top-tier sect, but refused Xiao Zhu’s suggestion to help him in secret.
• Wang Yang explained that Lu Ye had helped give him an opportunity to declare war on the Nine Stars Sect before he entered the Inner Circle.
• Xiao Zhu reported thirty deaths, most of them Rogue Cultivators, and Wang Yang ordered the Mystic Gate to increase pressure and end the war quickly.

The Nine Stars Sect struggled with heavy casualties as Dong Shuye tried to recruit Luo Ji to kill Mountain Crossing Tiger. Meanwhile, Lu Ye contacted Chu Tian, opened his twenty-ninth Spiritual Aperture, and discovered Taotie Meal really could double cultivation efficiency.

• Cao Ye told Dong Shuye that nearly sixty Nine Stars Sect disciples had died, many at Mountain Crossing Tiger's hands, while their Tier Five cultivators were kept in check.
• Dong Shuye ordered Cao Ye to promise Ziyi to Luo Ji if he brought back Mountain Crossing Tiger's head.
• Chu Tian received a brief message from Lu Ye, replied, and got no further response.
• Lu Ye recovered from battle and opened his twenty-ninth Spiritual Aperture while cultivating Taotie Meal.
• Lu Ye circulated Taotie Meal and found that it made his abdomen grind a Spiritual Pill's medicinal power into Spiritual Power at double efficiency.

Lu Ye discovered that Taotie Meal worked exceptionally well with his Talent Tree, speeding his pill cultivation and even absorbing some ambient Spiritual Energy. He realized Spirit Gathering might be useful inside a Spiritual Aperture, but his first attempt was scattered by the Spiritual Power flowing through it.

• Lu Ye found that Taotie Meal increased his pill-refining efficiency, and the Talent Tree burned away the Pill Toxin that limited other cultivators.
• Lu Ye discovered that Taotie Meal’s Spiritual Apertures helped him absorb food and noticed their arrangement resembled the Spirit Gathering Spirit Pattern.
• Lu Ye realized Taotie Meal could gather ambient Spiritual Energy and inferred that its design and Spirit Gathering shared a common source.
• Lu Ye decided to apply Spirit Gathering to a Spiritual Aperture, avoiding his Source Spirit Aperture and choosing another one.
• Lu Ye’s first attempt to place Spirit Gathering inside the Spiritual Aperture failed when the Spiritual Power flowing through his body scattered it.

Lu Ye successfully imbued all twenty-nine of his Spiritual Apertures with small Spirit Gathering patterns, which steadily gathered Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy and improved his cultivation. Needing a higher-tier cultivation technique but unable to leave Sky-Rending Gorge, he asked Chu Tian to sell him one, prompting the Mystic Gate camp to arrange a discounted sale.

• After repeated failures, Lu Ye reshaped a Spirit Gathering Spirit Pattern into a tiny funnel and successfully imbued it into one Spiritual Aperture.
• Lu Ye applied Little Funnel Spiritual Patterns to all twenty-nine of his Spiritual Apertures, then found that a full day of their cultivation benefits would roughly equal one Spirit Nurturing Pill.
• Lu Ye realized that expanding the method to all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Apertures could greatly aid his cultivation, but he lacked a technique beyond the Golden Cicada Free and Unfettered Art's Spirit Stream Tier Three limit.
• Unable to leave Sky-Rending Gorge to buy a technique, Lu Ye messaged Chu Tian and asked him to sell a Mystic-tier Cultivation Technique.
• Wang Yang and Xiao Zhu decided to offer Lu Ye a discounted technique and told Chu Tian to ask about his cultivation attribute.

Lu Ye awaited a cultivation technique from Chu Tian while preparing to practice, but Luo Ji of Boundless Island tracked him down and attacked. Lu Ye realized that the seemingly low-tier Spell Cultivator had unusually powerful Spiritual Power and likely cultivated a Heaven-Grade Cultivation Technique.

• Lu Ye counted his Spirit Stones and considered selling his Small Bell Spiritual Artifact or other treasures to afford a cultivation technique.
• Chu Tian told Lu Ye that a suitable technique for his cultivation attribute would arrive from camp within a day or two.
• Amber returned wounded, and Luo Ji introduced himself as a cultivator from Boundless Island.
• Lu Ye charged Luo Ji, who blinded him with White Scorch and followed with Earth Spike, Ice Spike, and Golden Arc.
• Lu Ye blocked Luo Ji's Golden Arc and recognized that Luo Ji's spellcasting and Spiritual Power were far beyond what a Tier Two cultivator should possess.

Lu Ye fought Luo Ji, a Heaven-Grade cultivator whose true strength far exceeded his apparent Spirit Stream Second Layer, in a narrow passage. Lu Ye’s allies briefly distracted Luo Ji, but Luo Ji trapped Lu Ye behind a massive block of ice and realized he had underestimated him.

• Lu Ye recognized that Luo Ji had opened at least fifty Spiritual Apertures with a Heaven-Grade Cultivation Technique, making him far stronger than his apparent cultivation suggested.
• Lu Ye charged Luo Ji but was driven back by spells; despite the disadvantage of the narrow passage, he chose to keep fighting rather than retreat.
• Luo Ji tricked Lu Ye with a feigned White Scorch and struck him with Ice Spikes, slowing his advance.
• Yiyi tried to intervene, but Luo Ji fired a Golden Arc Slash at her; Amber’s unusual roar staggered Luo Ji and gave Lu Ye an opening.
• Luo Ji shouted White Scorch again and froze scattered ice fragments into a barrier, forcing Lu Ye to retreat behind a massive block of ice.
• Luo Ji breathed a sigh of relief and realized the battle was harder than expected because Lu Ye was unlike other Spirit Stream Tier Three cultivators.