Chapter Summaries

A group of Crimson Firmament Heaven cultivators tested Yu Ci’s defenses by attacking Zhou Yang, then planned to weaken Yu Ci through ambushes and pressure on his allies. Their warship suddenly stopped as alarming reports of strange activity at the Chunyang Sect arrived.

• Zhou Yang’s lightning and currents failed against the giant, and the lantern’s light made him vanish.
• Aboard a warship, the cultivators discussed the failed test and worried that Zhou Chu might intervene over Zhou Yang.
• Ji Chang proposed using spirit-sealing arrays and coordinated pressure to wear down Yu Ci before striking decisively.
• Pavilion Master Yin ordered Ji Chang to scout the northern route and prepare spirit-sealing arrays, while the Crimson Firmament Heaven planned to attack Yu Ci’s old lair and seize hostages.
• Reports arrived that the Chunyang Sect was frantically searching its Shaoyang Sword Cave, and the warship suddenly shuddered to a complete stop.

Yu Ci caught up with the Crimson Firmament Heaven expedition’s warship as it became trapped before a mysterious cloud-road on the Jade Ruler River. He boarded the ship and approached Pavilion Master Yin, who tried to bargain with him using information and offers of mediation, but Yu Ci hinted that someone had proposed another course.

• Pavilion Master Yin sensed a disorienting barrier ahead and ordered the warship to back away from the cloud-road.
• The ship jolted violently as it retreated, injuring Pavilion Master Yin and forcing Ji Chang and the other cultivators to their battle stations.
• Yu Ci appeared behind the ship, pursued it through the dark clouds, and boarded despite its defensive talisman-array.
• Pavilion Master Yin asked Yu Ci why he had come and offered information about the Chunyang Sect and help with northern sects.
• Yu Ci stopped at Pavilion Master Yin’s offer and said that someone had raised a different opinion.

Su Shuanghe advised Yu Ci that rebuilding a sect required the ruthless force to clear a path, and Yu Ci’s resolve stirred an ominous portent that implicated them both. Yu Ci opened the Ghost Gate Pass into the Nine Nether Underworld, and the fleet sailed into its darkness.

• Su Shuanghe told Yu Ci that sects rose by defeating rivals and clearing away obstacles, while Yu Ci respectfully accepted his advice.
• Su Shuanghe sensed a blood-dark portent spreading across the eastern sky and realized it implicated him.
• Yu Ci thanked Su Shuanghe for resolving his uncertainty, then advanced past Pavilion Master Yin and the other cultivators to the warship’s prow.
• Yu Ci declared himself master of the place and cast an apricot-yellow talisman toward two enormous gates that had formed in the clouds.
• The gates opened, and the giant warship sailed into the Nine Nether Underworld through the Ghost Gate Pass as cultivators screamed and nether entities rejoiced.

Su Shuanghe watched Yu Ci send the Crimson Firmament Heaven into Ghost Gate Pass and realized the act displayed mastery of the Heaven and Earth Law Will while shifting some karmic blame onto him. He suppressed his anger and planned to bide his time, but an urgent message from the city forced him to leave.

• Su Shuanghe observed Yu Ci's avatar force the Crimson Firmament Heaven through Ghost Gate Pass into the Nine Nether Underworld.
• Su Shuanghe concluded Yu Ci had banished the ship's passengers rather than slaughtering them, reducing his own calamity force while shifting some karmic retribution onto Su Shuanghe.
• Su Shuanghe recognized Yu Ci's feat as a terrifying demonstration of self-cultivated void creation and mastery over the Heaven and Earth Law Will.
• Su Shuanghe suppressed his killing intent, resolved to wait for a chance to defeat Yu Ci and claim the Xuan Huang Killing Sword, then received an urgent message.
• Su Shuanghe told Yu Ci that urgent matters in the city required his attention and said they would meet again.

Su Shuanghe learned that the Xuan Huang Killing Sword had appeared in Shaoyang Sword Cave and regretted letting his desire for it disrupt his plans. Yu Ci sensed Su Shuanghe’s hostility, planted a seed in him, and used his divine ability to reach a distant view of the Sword Cave, where the sword itself was still nowhere to be seen.

• Su Shuanghe flew into the Azure Sky Domain after learning the Xuan Huang Killing Sword had been discovered in Shaoyang Sword Cave, and he regretted changing the Heavenly Evasion Sect’s plans to pursue it.
• Yu Ci sensed Su Shuanghe’s killing intent, planted a seed in him during his emotional upheaval, and turned his attention to the urgent message about Shaoyang Sword Cave.
• Yu Ci learned that a failed attempt to break into the Longevity Realm had triggered tribulation and exposed the Xuan Huang Killing Sword, then considered how to reach the distant cave quickly.
• Yu Ci entered the Realm of Truth and used True Dragon Form Qi to expand his perception beyond the limits imposed by the Heaven and Earth Law System.
• Yu Ci observed Su Shuanghe traveling in the Wuling Sun Crown Chariot and then extended his view to Shaoyang Sword Cave, where a great tribulation battered the mountain-protecting formation.
• Yu Ci saw spiritual light rising from the main peak of Shaoyang Sword Cave but could not find the Xuan Huang Killing Sword.

The Pure Yang Sect, cultivators renting caves in the Shaoyang Sword Cave, and the Pure Void Virtue Sect gathered to respond to the missing Xuan Huang Killing Sword and the gathering tribulation clouds. With Wu Yuanchen threatening the site, Wang Zihuai advised them to search with divine intent and wait for Uncle Hongyuan’s arrangements.

• Han Shuichang and Du Ying joined Wang Zihuai as representatives of the three sides gathered on the Shaoyang Sword Cave’s main peak.
• Han Shuichang declared that the Pure Yang Sect wanted to protect the cave and escort the Xuan Huang Killing Sword out of its borders, but no one knew where the sword was.
• Wu Yuanchen struck the Soulfall Bell, unsettling cultivators inside the guardian talisman array and enraging Han Shuichang.
• Wang Zihuai said the array remained stable and Wu Yuanchen would not risk attacking it from both sides, so they should search for the sword and await Uncle Hongyuan’s arrangements.
• A Daoist strode into the gathering as Wang Zihuai was speaking.

Wang Zihuai and Daoist Hongyuan helped Wu Yuanchen locate the Xuan Huang Killing Sword, which had unexpectedly sculpted spirit and transformed its life. Wu Yuanchen’s revelation stirred greed among the sword cultivators in Shaoyang Sword Cave, giving his demonic intent a chance to engulf the mountains.

• Daoist Hongyuan revealed that he had spread Supreme True Incense through the sword cave’s talisman array as Wang Zihuai and Han Shuichang questioned the preparations.
• Daoist Hongyuan realized Wu Yuanchen’s soul-searching had failed because the Xuan Huang Killing Sword’s state differed from what they had expected.
• Wu Yuanchen changed his soul-searching technique, found the sword, and drove it through the Soulfall Bell’s killing power before it vanished into the shadows.
• Wu Yuanchen announced that the Xuan Huang Killing Sword had sculpted spirit, shocking Han Shuichang and the other cultivators.
• Han Shuichang’s greed and the desires of the sword cultivators swelled, allowing Wu Yuanchen’s demonic intent to pollute the perceptions of the mountains’ inhabitants.

Han Shuichang tried to locate and fight Wu Yuanchen while the Xuan Huang Killing Sword was trapped by the battle around it. Duanyang True Man helped expose Wu Yuanchen’s position, but withdrew when their divine-intent clash proved unequal, and Hongyuan Daoist’s sudden blood-guided spell left Han Shuichang sensing a new, ominous force.

• Han Shuichang unleashed the Pure Yang True Fire and used his Sun Burning Dharma Eye to search for Wu Yuanchen, but could not find him.
• The Soulfall Bell disrupted a mountain peak and the Xuan Huang Killing Sword became locked within the twisted void, prompting Han Shuichang to direct his fire over the battlefield.
• Han Shuichang’s sword strike missed Wu Yuanchen, but Duanyang True Man’s smoke revealed a trace of Wu Yuanchen’s divine intent.
• Wu Yuanchen swiftly withdrew his divine intent, and Duanyang True Man retreated within the Shaoyang Sword Cave after Han Shuichang recognized the danger of pursuing him.
• Wang Zihuai insisted that the Xuan Huang Killing Sword remained the priority, while Hongyuan Daoist opened his eyes, spat blood, and began a spell that made Han Shuichang feel a sudden pressure.

Han Shuichang learned that Chu Yuanxiang had joined the battle as the Pure Void Virtue Sect’s hidden Grand Patriarch, while the clash of divine intents devastated Shaoyang Sword Cave. As the fight turned toward a mountain where golden light and a dragon’s roar emerged, Han Shuichang revealed a connection between the Xuan Huang Killing Sword and Ancestor Gu Liang’s disciple Yu Nan.

• Divine-intent shockwaves shattered a neighboring peak and damaged Shaoyang Sword Cave’s spiritual vein and talisman arrays.
• Duanyang True Man’s void pursued the Xuan Huang Killing Sword through the mountains as the impacts spread destruction.
• Hongyuan Daoist told Han Shuichang that Chu Yuanxiang had arrived in person, and Han urged the Pure Void Virtue Sect to drive the enemy away from Shaoyang Cave.
• Han Shuichang revealed that the sword’s intent traced back to a Sword Hiding Manor rented by Yu Nan, Ancestor Gu Liang’s eldest disciple.
• Golden light and a dragon’s roar emerged from a mountain to the southwest, and Duanyang True Man and the sword light changed course and crashed into it.

Han Shuichang witnessed Wu Yuanchen and Chu Yuanxiang’s divine-intent battle devastate Shaoyang Sword Cave, while a third expert twisted the battlefield’s surroundings. As the two Grandmasters invoked opposing domains, a golden dragon formed around the Xuan Huang Killing Sword, and a heavenly figure appeared riding it, leaving the conflict at a three-way standoff.

• Wu Yuanchen and Chu Yuanxiang’s divine-intent collision shattered Shaoyang Sword Cave’s protective arrays and ground a mountain to dust.
• Duanyang True Man crashed onto the summit grievously wounded, and Hongyuan Daoist tried to revive and protect him.
• A third expert’s strange divine intent transformed the mountainside into crystals and killed seven of eight guarding cultivators, prompting Duanyang True Man and Han Shuichang to warn everyone to guard their minds and apertures.
• Han Shuichang recognized that Wu Yuanchen and Chu Yuanxiang had summoned a demon kingdom and the Nine Profound Primordial Vault, trapping Shaoyang Sword Cave between their clashing domains.
• A golden rainbow rose from the depths of Shaoyang Sword Cave, joined with the Xuan Huang Killing Sword to form a heavenly dragon, and carried a colossal heavenly figure into a three-way standoff with the two domains.

Yu Ci escaped Shaoyang Sword Cave after Xuan Huang survived the Spirit Sculpting Heavenly Tribulation, while Wu Yuanchen and Chu Yuanxiang pursued him with clashes of divine intent. The battle moved far from the cave, and Yu Ci discovered that he enjoyed fighting on this vast scale.

• Han Shuichang realized that the three-way clash had overwhelmed Shaoyang Sword Cave, then watched the dragon-riding Heavenly Man projection vanish and the Xuan Huang Killing Sword appear.
• The tribulation clouds gathered again as the three mighty figures moved their clash elsewhere, and the shaken cultivators at Shaoyang Sword Cave began recovering.
• Yu Ci retreated with Xuan Huang and his belongings, having learned who his two powerful opponents were.
• Wu Yuanchen attacked Yu Ci with a vast surge of divine intent, but Yu Ci altered the void and weakened the blow.
• Chu Yuanxiang struck next, and Yu Ci dodged so that Chu Yuanxiang's attack collided with Wu Yuanchen's, devastating the surrounding landscape.
• Yu Ci felt excited by the battle and decided that these arts of attack and slaughter suited him.

Yu Ci used his prolonged battle with Wu Yuanchen and Chu Yuanxiang to improve his divine intent techniques and draw on memories of the Rakshasa Ghost King and Tai Xuan Demon Mother’s clash. Just as he began to master the method, Wu Yuanchen’s Soulfall Bell drove his divine intent impact to two million layers and rising.

• Yu Ci relied on rapid shifts between tiers and his ability to open a temporary void to evade Wu Yuanchen and Chu Yuanxiang while refining his divine intent techniques.
• Yu Ci recalled the long-distance divine intent clash between the Rakshasa Ghost King and Tai Xuan Demon Mother and used it as a model for understanding the battle.
• Yu Ci advanced from impacts of seventy or eighty thousand layers to five or six hundred thousand layers, gaining the ability to contend directly on tiers where Wu Yuanchen and Chu Yuanxiang were less adept.
• Yu Ci recognized that mastering divine intent attacks could help him move freely within the Heaven and Earth Law System and approach the Realm of Truth.
• Wu Yuanchen rang his Soulfall Bell, raising his divine intent impact to two million layers and continuing to increase it.

Yu Ci learned from Wu Yuanchen’s spiritual-intent assault and forged a vast star-chart defense, then pulled back as Xuan Huang raced south and attracted greedy pursuers. Su Shuanghe ambushed the sword with a trapping array, a witch curse, and a jade hook, leaving the capture attempt unresolved.

• Yu Ci shifted through Wu Yuanchen’s black tide, built a star chart that countered the giant bell, and broke through eight hundred thousand layers of spiritual-intent pressure.
• Yu Ci blocked Chu Yuanxiang when he tried to seize Xuan Huang, then withdrew his spiritual intent and continued fighting as the battlefield moved south.
• Xuan Huang flew ahead without concealment and cut down cultivators who tried to intercept it, while chaotic reports spread along its route.
• Su Shuanghe arrived ahead of Xuan Huang, killed cultivators preparing a Void Trapping Array, and used their deaths as a fire sacrifice.
• Su Shuanghe activated the array and charged from the tribulation clouds in the Wuling Sun Crown Chariot, attacking Xuan Huang with a witch curse and jade hook.

Su Shuanghe’s attempt to capture the Xuan Huang Killing Sword failed when the sword resisted his traps and tribulation thunder, then turned its awakened killing intent against him. Divine will clashes from approaching powerhouses destroyed his chariot and golden crows, and he used their deaths to curse his attackers, discovering one target far away at Ring Belt Lake.

• Su Shuanghe’s shamanic curse failed against the Xuan Huang Killing Sword, whose Twelve Jade Towers Heavenly Sound sword intent wounded and countercontrolled him.
• Su Shuanghe raised the Void Trapping Array’s temperature and drew tribulation lightning into it, but the Xuan Huang Killing Sword broke through the array and badly damaged the Wuling Sun Crown Chariot.
• Su Shuanghe realized the tribulation thunder had not harmed the sword and that his attacks had awakened its intelligence and hostility.
• Wu Yuanchen and other powerhouses arrived, and their divine will collision swept across the area, destroying Su Shuanghe’s chariot and killing his two Three-legged Golden Crows.
• Su Shuanghe used a life-claiming curse through the golden crows’ blood mist to locate Wu Yuanchen, Chu Yuanxiang, and a third target at Ring Belt Lake.

Su Shuanghe tried to restrain Chu Shuanghe while Yu Ci and the Xuan Huang Killing Sword remained in the celestial expanse, but the sword’s power shattered the surrounding laws and stopped both Grandmasters’ divine intent attacks. The calamity clouds then opened onto a wondrous immortal realm, which Chu Shuanghe recognized as the Eternal Azure Sky.

• Su Shuanghe chose not to expose Yu Ci and used witchcraft curses to interfere with Chu Shuanghe’s Void Teleportation.
• Yu Ci vanished from Su Shuanghe’s perception while the Xuan Huang Killing Sword stayed behind and raised its Twelve Jade Towers Heavenly Sound sword intent to nine revolutions.
• Su Shuanghe used Law Manifestation and Heaven and Earth to stall Wu Yuanchen and Chu Shuanghe’s divine intents as the sword intent rose to eleven revolutions.
• The Xuan Huang Killing Sword’s destructive pressure collapsed the surrounding Earth and Heaven laws and obliterated Wu Yuanchen and Chu Shuanghe’s divine intent shocks.
• A feather drifted down from the sky as the calamity clouds cleared to reveal an immortal realm, and Chu Shuanghe identified it as the Eternal Azure Sky.

Yu Ci’s immortal realm trapped Su Shuanghe, Chu Yuanxiang, and Wu Yuanchen, preventing the two Calamity Law Grandmasters from using their full power. As Chu Yuanxiang and Wu Yuanchen recognized the realm as the Three Pure Realms and debated its Shangqing origins, a rainbow descended toward Su Shuanghe.

• The immortal realm spread over Su Shuanghe, Chu Yuanxiang, and Wu Yuanchen after the Xuan Huang Killing Sword disrupted the laws of the surrounding void.
• The three Grandmasters cautiously sensed the realm, and Su Shuanghe separated himself from Chu Yuanxiang and Wu Yuanchen as they adapted to its restrictions.
• Wu Yuanchen recognized the realm’s Mystical School principles as remnants of Shangqing, and he and Chu Yuanxiang identified it as the Three Pure Realms.
• Chu Yuanxiang and Wu Yuanchen discussed Shangqing’s supreme divine ability and the realm’s talismanic origins while Su Shuanghe realized they were all trapped.
• A rainbow descended toward Su Shuanghe, and Chu Yuanxiang and Wu Yuanchen tried to attack, but their divine-intent strikes faltered under the realm’s laws.

Su Shuanghe visited Yu Ci in the Eternal Azure Sky, where Yu Ci revealed the Three Pure Ones Teachings and announced he would deal with Chu Yuanxiang and Wu Yuanchen. At Shaoyang Sword Cave, Chu Yuanxiang arrived injured, sent Wang Zihuai to prepare a gift for an unnamed new sect, and entered seclusion to heal.

• Su Shuanghe followed Yu Ci’s red-clothed sword artifact spirit to meet Yu Ci inside the Eternal Azure Sky.
• Yu Ci showed Su Shuanghe the Supreme Purity Realm Taiji Palace, where immortal adepts listened to the Moral Heavenly Venerable transmit the teachings.
• Yu Ci said he would deal with Chu Yuanxiang and Wu Yuanchen, then received a talismanic decree as their trapped divine intents made another move.
• Han Shuichang greeted Chu Yuanxiang at Shaoyang Sword Cave, and Chu ordered Wang Zihuai to teach in the Azure Nether Void beyond the domain.
• Chu Yuanxiang told Wang Zihuai to prepare a congratulatory gift for someone establishing a sect, then went into seclusion to heal his injuries.
• Chu Yuanxiang’s face cracked and bled as he laughed, but he dismissed the damage and continued toward his cave abode.

During a violent storm and a mysterious disturbance in the island’s primordial qi, Yu Ci emerged from meditation gaunt and terrifyingly powerful, then went to Cold Smoke’s room while Xue Zhi struggled to endure the night’s events. By morning, Yu Ci looked healthier again, but Xue Zhi was left wondering what had happened to Baiyi.

• Xue Zhi left her room during the rain to check on Yu Ci, who was meditating in the courtyard.
• The island shook as the primordial qi fell out of balance, and Yu Ci rose from meditation in a skeletal state with a crushing presence.
• Yu Ci asked Xue Zhi where Cold Smoke was, and she led him to her bedchamber while drenched and shaken.
• Yu Ci entered the room where Baiyi was sleeping, and Xue Zhi heard cries and other sounds through the night before falling asleep in a maidservant’s room.
• After the rain stopped, Xue Zhi learned that Yu Ci and Cold Smoke had not yet risen, then encountered Yu Ci as he emerged looking healthier than before.

Xue Zhi confronted Baiyi after Yu Ci’s visit and learned that Baiyi had willingly humored him the previous night. Baiyi warned that Su Shuanghe was plotting against Xue Zhi, then pulled her into the bath; meanwhile, Yu Ci reflected on his mastery of Eternal Azure Sky and the new standing it gave him as a Shangqing successor.

• Yu Ci briefly asked Xue Zhi whether she had slept well before leaving her unsettled.
• Xue Zhi found Baiyi preparing for a bath amid the disorder in her bedchamber, and Baiyi explained that she had humored Yu Ci the previous night.
• Baiyi warned Xue Zhi that Su Shuanghe might be plotting to ruin her and replace her with another woman.
• Baiyi pulled Xue Zhi into the bathing tub, while Yu Ci’s unseen spiritual sense withdrew from the scene.
• Yu Ci reviewed how the Realm of Truth had enabled him to manifest Eternal Azure Sky and concluded that it had established his identity as a Shangqing successor.

Yu Ci sought to accelerate the recovery of his injured divine soul by refining a Seven Emotions Demonic Pill, but struggled to find enough suitable people whose emotions could serve as ingredients. A red-robed child arrived claiming to be Yu Ci’s disciple, and as Yu Ci prepared to leave the island the next day, Xue Zhi impulsively asked to accompany him.

• Yu Ci reviewed the Seven Emotions Enter Elixir method and concluded that he needed several suitable people to cultivate the emotions required for the pill.
• Yu Ci put Baiyi through lessons and mental cultivation, which benefited her cultivation while leaving her troubled by her growing emotional confusion.
• Xue Zhi brooded over rumors about her and Yu Ci and awaited Su Shuanghe’s judgment as her relationship with Baiyi deepened.
• A red-robed child arrived on the island seeking Yu Ci, and Yu Ci introduced him as his child and asked Xue Zhi to provide books for him to study.
• Yu Ci told Xue Zhi he planned to leave the next day, and Xue Zhi blurted out that she wanted to accompany him.