Chapter Summaries

Yu Ci considered how the outer stellar void and the Heavenly Human Method might help him understand the Rakshasa’s plans, then sent Madam Huanyong back to the True Realm with instructions. At Xi Yu Lake, the Clear Sky Discourse began drawing a crowd, and a short, plump visitor was recognized as Xin Tianjun.

• Xue Pingzhi lent Yu Ci her Sky Domain Shuttle before leaving, and Madam Huanyong appeared to discuss the Rakshasa matter with him.
• Yu Ci and Madam Huanyong discussed the laws of stars, the rarity of habitable worlds, and the unusual qualities of Taishi Star.
• Madam Huanyong advised Yu Ci to seek Madam Hua’s counsel about the Xiyu Alliance’s affairs, and Yu Ci sent her back to the True Realm to handle a task.
• Yu Ci remained alone in the void and sensed a faint, rhythmic pulse in its depths.
• At Xi Yu Lake, Shuxuan Tower rose as cultivators gathered for the Clear Sky Discourse and spectators watched through water mirrors.
• A short, plump old man waved toward the water mirrors, and Lin Shuangmu and Wu Jing realized he was Xin Tianjun.

News that Xin Yi of Eight Sceneries Palace would attend the Clear Sky Discourse stirred debate across Xi Yu Lake, while rumors about Madam Hua spread among the arriving cultivators. Yu Ci arrived at Shuxuan Tower with Daoist Qianbao just as the opening song began.

• Wu Jing told Lin Shuangmu that he had met Xin Yi at Xu Bo's apprenticeship banquet, confirming that the Eight Sceneries Palace Tianjun planned to attend.
• Cultivators around Xi Yu Lake debated Xin Yi's arrival, the southern merchants' influence, and rumors that Madam Hua had been abandoned by Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu.
• Cang You oversaw the crowded gathering at Shuxuan Tower and watched for Yuanxu, one of the event's expected honored guests.
• Bai Xiufeng intercepted Yuanxu, then Daoist Qianbao stopped Yu Ci and agreed to accompany him into the gathering.
• Cang You welcomed Yu Ci and Daoist Qianbao onto a cloud bridge as the opening song rang out, and Yu Ci led his still-dazed uncle-master toward the tower.

At the Clear Sky Discourse, Yu Ci met Xue Pingzhi and her trusted former retainer, True Lord Shiru, while the guests watched the gathering’s political undercurrents emerge. Xue Pingzhi discovered that Yu Ci had sent a clone to the discourse while his true body traveled toward the Death Star, and Madam Xia’s arrival left the gathering tense as Yu Ci watched the lake.

• Yu Ci arrived at Shuxuan Tower, exchanged distant greetings with Xin Yi, and joined Xue Pingzhi and Daoist Qianbao.
• Xue Pingzhi introduced True Lord Shiru, who recognized Daoist Qianbao’s recent work refining a Dharma artifact and soon struck up an easy conversation with him.
• Xue Pingzhi explained that Shiru had once been her retainer and was among the few who had stayed in contact after her great calamity.
• Xue Pingzhi touched Yu Ci’s cheek and realized he was a clone, while his true body was still traveling toward the star in the Sky Domain Shuttle.
• Madam Xia took the host seat in formal attire, prompting the guests’ conversation to fall silent and exposing their unease around Xin Yi.
• Yu Ci sensed the gathering’s tense emotions and calmly gazed out over the lake.

At the Clear Sky Discourse in Shuxuan Tower, Xin Yi’s sudden arrival via the Eight Sceneries Palace’s Heavenly Ladder threatened to disrupt the Xiyu Alliance’s agreed division of the void worlds. As Madam Xia began the proceedings, she announced the first world up for consideration: Iron Meteor Realm.

• Madam Xia eased the tense gathering, then exchanged pointed remarks with Xin Yi about his unexpected attendance.
• Xue Pingzhi explained to Yu Ci how the Eight Sceneries Palace’s Heavenly Ladder let Xin Yi travel to Xi Yu Lake with little warning.
• Yu Ci suspected Xin Yi’s arrival would force the Xiyu Alliance to alter its distribution plan and pass the resulting losses to others.
• Daoist Qianbao asked Yu Ci about Zhang Yan and Bai Xiufeng’s offer to join the Death Star matter; Yu Ci said he had refused Bai Xiufeng.
• Madam Xia opened the discussion of the seven void worlds and named Iron Meteor Realm as the first.

At the Clear Sky Discourse, Yu Ci watched the Cloud-Splitting Talisman Combat as victories went to several sects, including Murong Qingyan’s Myriad Manifestations Sect. The contest’s political stakes emerged when powerful outsiders entered to assist favored sects, leaving Lingchen Sect’s leaders to realize they had been excluded from the core negotiations.

• Yu Ci observed the sects competing in the Feather Fall, Single Hue, and Myriad Manifestations methods, with Dayu Gate, Lingchen Sect, and Myriad Manifestations Sect each earning a victory.
• Yu Ci recognized that the Myriad Manifestations Sect was Murong Qingyan’s home sect and noted that its cultivator had mastered its fundamental method.
• As the remaining rounds approached, Gongyang Ce stepped forward to compete for Dayu Gate, prompting a Lingchen Sect cultivator to object that he belonged to Danshui Temple.
• A representative of Dayu Gate defended Gongyang Ce’s participation by pointing out that the rules did not forbid outside assistance.
• Tang Lian, a great shaman of Thousand Peaks Sect, joined the contest on behalf of Myriad Manifestations Sect and cited his ties to Murong Qingyan and Madam Xia.
• Lingchen Sect’s master saw that the other sect leaders were untroubled by the outside participants and realized his sect had been excluded from the core circle.

The Xiyu Alliance’s leaders secured the Iron Meteor Realm for the Dayu Gate and the Myriad Manifestations Sect, while Yu Ci faced a test of whether the Alliance considered him an insider as the Death Star came up for contention. Ao Xiu decided to challenge Yu Ci for it, pointing out something about Yu Ci’s right wrist.

• Yu Ci realized the Clear Sky Discourse had exposed a power struggle that marginalized the Lingchen Sect and tightened the Xiyu Alliance’s united front against outsiders.
• Yu Ci refused Bai Xiufeng’s renewed plea for help, and the Dayu Gate and the Myriad Manifestations Sect won their remaining matches before agreeing to split the Iron Meteor Realm’s output.
• Madam Xia announced that Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu was the sole claimant to the Death Star, and no sect stepped forward to contend with him.
• Ao Xiu urged Ao Yang to challenge Yu Ci for the Death Star, arguing that the Sea Merchant Guild was suited to managing it and that the opportunity could hurt Yu Ci.
• Ao Xiu told Ao Yang to look at Yu Ci’s right wrist, and Ao Yang instinctively turned his gaze toward it.

Ao Yang agreed to join forces with Zhang Tianji and Zhengyi Dao to challenge Yu Ci for the Death Star, with each side promised a tenth share of the Nine Qi Circle Realm. Zhengyi Dao sent Guangwei of the True Sun Altar to open the contest, and Yu Ci reacted with surprise as the first bout began.

• Ao Xiu noticed that Yu Ci's talisman beads were missing and realized the figure at the event was only an avatar.
• Ao Yang weighed the risks of challenging Yu Ci and reconsidered after Zhang Tianji offered Zhengyi Dao's support and a share in the Nine Qi Circle Realm.
• Ao Yang agreed to the alliance and asked Zhengyi Dao to send the first contestant to assess Yu Ci's strength.
• Zhang Tianji arranged for the True Sun Altar to challenge Yu Ci just before Madam Xia could announce the Death Star's ownership.
• Guangwei of Zhengyi Dao stepped forward to fight the first bout on behalf of the True Sun Altar, surprising Yu Ci.

Yu Ci answered the Zhengyi Dao and Sea Merchant Guild’s challenge by facing True Man Guangwei in a Star Array Method contest. The two took positions outside Shuxuan Tower, where the crowd waited for their first moves.

• True Man Guangwei revealed his Zhengyi Dao origins and entered the contest, leaving Zhang Tianji frustrated by the choice to expose him.
• True Lord Shiru admitted that his talisman arts mastery was inferior to True Man Guangwei’s, while Daoist Qianbao and Xue Pingzhi considered who should respond.
• Yu Ci rejected further deliberation, stepped forward, and greeted True Man Guangwei.
• Yu Ci proposed the Star Array Method despite admitting he knew nothing of the Way of Go, and True Man Guangwei agreed to a game by hand.
• Yu Ci and True Man Guangwei moved beyond the Viewing Cloud Platforms to face each other as the crowd watched.

Yu Ci and True Man Guangwei began a Star Array Method contest by creating a chessboard domain and placing stones that shaped the clouds overhead. As their moves accumulated, neither side formed a decisive talisman, leaving the crowd divided between confusion and fascination.

• Yu Ci and True Man Guangwei combined their domains to create a suspended chessboard that subdued the surrounding void.
• Yu Ci remembered playing chess with Xin Yi and Zhan Shuicheng in Xin Yi's Self-Created World, then exchanged a look with Xin Yi in the crowd.
• Yu Ci asked True Man Guangwei to move first but opened by placing two white stones on the diagonal star points, linking aperture eyes and drawing a crack through the sky.
• True Man Guangwei hesitated before placing a black stone, which created a second sky-splitting crack perpendicular to Yu Ci's.
• Yu Ci and True Man Guangwei traded several moves, shaping clouds with their qi while the crucial talisman forms remained unformed.
• Cultivators across Xi Yu Lake watched the slow contest, with experts engrossed and others struggling to understand it.

As Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu’s talisman demonstration captivated the cultivators at Xi Yu Lake, Lin Shuangmu watched them unravel its intricate forms and qi circulation. True Man Guangwei finally made his long-awaited move, leaving the lake’s spectators in suspense over whether he had severed the talisman’s formation.

• Wu Jing explained to Lin Shuangmu that Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu’s chess moves openly demonstrated the structure and circulation of his talisman art.
• Wu Jing, a neighboring cultivator, and an old Daoist argued over how to interpret the talisman’s aperture nodes and layered forms.
• As Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu placed the eleventh aperture node, the cloud formation revealed more of the fire talisman, and cultivators around Xi Yu Lake praised its design.
• Lin Shuangmu realized Yu Ci’s chess formation appeared to leave an obvious opening for True Man Guangwei to sever its talisman-form veins.
• Cultivators across Xi Yu Lake begged True Man Guangwei not to break the formation, but he deliberated and placed his piece.

Yu Ci completed the twelve-aperture Grand Unity Smoke Capital Starfire Talisman, then began a new Linked Veins Talisman that built upon it as he and True Man Guangwei continued their sky-spanning demonstration over Xi Yu Lake. The spectators recognized Shangqing’s legendary technique, while observers in Shuxuan Tower debated whether Yu Ci had won Guangwei over by appealing to his love of teaching talismanic arts.

• Yu Ci completed the twelve-aperture talisman, shaping the clouds and sunlight into a magnificent vision of the Immortal Capital.
• True Man Guangwei answered with a formation of a thunderous carriage drawn by four heavenly steeds, and the crowd cheered as the two continued placing stones.
• Yu Ci’s next move began revealing a new talisman with twenty-four tiers, prompting Wu Jing to identify it as Shangqing’s secret Linked Veins Talisman.
• Cultivators recognized that the Linked Veins Talisman built upon a completed talisman and could elevate it toward divine abilities.
• Observers in Shuxuan Tower concluded that Yu Ci’s open teaching had stirred Guangwei’s heart and drawn him away from competing for victory.
• One observer complained that the match was being allowed to drift, but another rebuked him for judging others by himself.

Xin Yi explained why True Man Guangwei’s delaying move against Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu was necessary, showing that Yuanxu’s linked talisman meridians gave him a decisive advantage in a direct contest. He left the gathered cultivators convinced that Guangwei’s cautious strategy had prevented an even earlier defeat.

• Kan Xingli’s remark drew Xin Yi’s rebuke, and Xin Yi defended True Man Guangwei while pointing out Zhang Tianji’s discomfort.
• Xin Yi counted the apertures in Yuanxu’s talisman arts and explained how the linked meridians could be completed with relatively few board positions.
• When Lan Xuezheng argued that Guangwei should have attacked Yuanxu’s formation, Xin Yi recreated the board and showed that the apparent flaw would emerge too late for Guangwei to exploit.
• Xin Yi explained that Yuanxu had led Guangwei through successive moves and that a direct fight over talisman speed would have let Yuanxu win by the twelfth or thirteenth move.
• Xin Yi noted that Yuanxu had claimed the initiative from the start and joked that he himself would have disregarded appearances to take the first move.

After Yu Ci and True Person Guangwei’s talisman contest established Yu Ci’s standing, Xin Yi rebuked several spectators for their biased judgments while Madam Xia framed the display as a rare opportunity to witness talisman arts. The contest continued to enthrall the crowd, and just as Guangwei’s azure luan escaped into the clouds, a vast blaze of golden light appeared.

• Xin Yi chastised Lan Xuezheng, Liu Gongyuan, and Li Daoqing for failing to judge the contest fairly and warned Li not to mislead his disciple, Gongyang Ce.
• Madam Xia praised Yu Ci and True Person Guangwei’s display as a possible contribution to talisman arts, while clarifying that spectators could not fully grasp its underlying methods from observation alone.
• Cultivators watching at Xi Yu Lake struggled to follow the evolving talisman formations, and several fainted or became overwhelmed by regret at missing important details.
• True Person Guangwei’s moves grew more fluid, but Yu Ci maintained his composure and continued arranging aperture nodes without losing a piece.
• As Yu Ci’s forty aperture nodes matched his prediction, Guangwei’s talisman form became an azure luan that failed to cross the twenty-eight gates and towers before flying into the clouds.
• Golden light suddenly blazed ten thousand zhang behind the azure luan.

Yu Ci’s forty-first move merged the Three-legged Golden Crow and the great sun with a resonant bell-like sound, leaving cultivators across Xi Yu Lake stunned and inspired. As the crowd absorbed the spectacle, Xin Yi wondered whether the sound carried the beginnings of Dao resonance and whether he had judged it correctly.

• Yu Ci fused a Three-legged Golden Crow with the great sun, while cultivators across Xi Yu Lake watched in amazement.
• A Core Formation cultivator comprehended a spell from Yu Ci’s demonstration, and Wu Jing soon entered a similar state of sudden inspiration.
• Lin Shuangmu protected Wu Jing from the surging crowd with his Severing Water sword art and urged the cultivators to study Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu’s demonstration.
• The cultivators in Shuxuan Tower recognized that Yu Ci’s vision surpassed ordinary talisman arts, while Chu Yuanxiang expressed his admiration and Yang Zhu reflected on the gap in their realms.
• Yu Ci made his forty-first move, producing a clear, bell-like resonance that led cultivators to speculate about the Supreme Unity Radiance Flowing Gold Fire Bell Talisman and the Emperor Bell.
• Xin Yi wondered whether the sound carried the beginnings of Dao resonance, then asked the watching cultivators whether he had misjudged it.

Xin Yi explained how Yu Ci used talisman arts to express his vision of the sun, while True Man Guangwei answered with an elaborate divine register and captured a stretch of stones on the chessboard. The apparent reversal left the crowd uncertain, but Xin Yi revealed that Guangwei had resorted to the impure methods he disliked because it was his only way to keep fighting.

• Xin Yi explained that Yu Ci had borrowed talisman arts to reinterpret the sun, making its light and warmth the focus rather than the talismans’ direct destructive power.
• Ao Yang urged Zhang Tianji to let True Man Guangwei concede, but Zhang Tianji decided to let the match continue rather than damage Guangwei’s reputation.
• True Man Guangwei transformed the scattered phoenix feathers into spirit-light sigils and assembled them into a complex dharma register.
• Yu Ci placed an ordinary stone, and True Man Guangwei quickly answered by capturing a whole stretch of stones on the void chessboard.
• Xin Yi told the onlookers that Guangwei had fought desperately to win, recognizing that Guangwei had used a divine register he disliked because it was his only way to hold on.

Yu Ci defeated True Man Guangwei in a Go match that revealed extraordinary talismanic arts, and the Emperor Bell he summoned destroyed Guangwei’s talismanic formation. After the first match of the best-of-five ended, Yu Ci chose his next opponent and asked his Uncle-Master to assist him.

• True Man Guangwei prolonged the match to display talismanic arts, but Yu Ci’s moves left him unable to place a stone and forced him to concede.
• The Emperor Bell formed from the sun wheel, absorbed the Three-legged Golden Crow, and destroyed Guangwei’s talismanic Dharma forms with its third chime.
• Zhang Tianji’s disciple helped the exhausted True Man Guangwei return to the Viewing Cloud Platform, where Zhang Tianji consoled him and Ao Yang said the Sea Merchant Guild would send the next contestant.
• Yu Ci returned to Shuxuan Tower with the Emperor Bell, and Xue Pingzhi and Madam Xia praised the match as a game that would be remembered for ages.
• Madam Xia declared Yu Ci the winner of the first match and invited him to choose the next contestant, so Yu Ci asked his Uncle-Master to assist him.

Daoist Qianbao recognized that factions within the Xiyu Alliance were maneuvering to isolate Yu Ci and accepted a deliberately unfavorable talisman contest against Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng. As the contest was about to begin, Qianbao felt Yu Ci’s lingering warmth easing his injuries and wondered whether Tianfeng received the same benefit.

• Daoist Qianbao offered to help Yu Ci for free, ruling out Li Chen Sect’s participation in the void-world distribution.
• Daoist Qianbao reasoned that Zhengyi Dao and the Sea Merchant Guild were aiding an insider faction in cutting off Yu Ci’s share, and suspected that faction was allied with Flying Soul City.
• Daoist Qianbao left Shuxuan Tower to face Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng, whose strength made Qianbao’s chances of winning slim.
• Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng chose the Single Hue Method and claimed sky hue, leaving Daoist Qianbao to take water hue in conditions favoring his opponent.
• Daoist Qianbao prepared to fight despite his injuries and felt Yu Ci’s lingering warmth nourishing him, then wondered whether Tianfeng felt it too.

During the talisman duel, Daoist Qianbao used a Cloudwater Talisman while Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng built a powerful Great Sun Talisman formation. Qianbao then disrupted Tianfeng’s patterns with an artifact-refining technique, and Xin Yi explained how refinement could be applied beyond artifacts.

• Daoist Qianbao experienced the sensation of becoming one with heaven and earth and began the round by drawing a Cloudwater Talisman that gathered a single cloud over the sun.
• Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng drew a Great Sun Talisman and rapidly added subsidiary patterns, building up the wind and clouds as Qianbao’s talisman worked slowly.
• A beam of light struck Tianfeng’s formation and collapsed several patterns, prompting Ao Xiu to nearly accuse Qianbao of foul play.
• Xin Yi identified Qianbao’s hand seal as the Earth Baleful Hand Seal and explained that he had used artifact-refining methods to interfere with the talisman formation.
• Yu Ci declined to explain the technique, so Xin Yi described artifact refinement as joining one’s mind and spirit with a structure of heaven and earth’s laws.

Daoist Qianbao used his Qianbao Pool to turn the contest against Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng, drawing on the inner void to make heaven and earth manifest as his talisman. As his advantage grew, Lu Jiujie accused Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu of interfering, and Madam Xia challenged him to explain why he had spoken up.

• Xin Yi explained ritual refining and praised Daoist Qianbao’s ability to treat illusory talismanic forms as physical implements.
• Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng intensified his attack, forcing the duel into a direct contest between the two talismanic structures.
• Daoist Qianbao swept pure light onto his own collapsing talisman, rebuilding it and revealing the water-light technique he called Qianbao Pool.
• Daoist Qianbao’s water light joined the sky and lake, while his talisman rapidly developed and pushed Wandering Cultivator Tianfeng into an increasingly unfavorable position.
• Ao Xiu urged Ao Yang and Zhang Tianji to stir up opposition to Yu Ci, and a tall, thin cultivator interrupted the crowd by accusing Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu of meddling.
• Madam Xia identified the accuser as Lu Jiujie of the Zidu Sect and questioned why he had intervened in the duel.

A public outburst by Lu Jiujie nearly turned the Clear Sky Discourse into a political crisis, but the leading factions suppressed the matter and resumed the contests. Yu Ci learned that Liu Mingzhi, an elder of the Chiqi Sect, was present, while Xue Pingzhi explained how Flying Soul City might distribute the coming Taishi Star contest’s gains.

• Ao Yang tried to distance the Sea Merchant Guild from Lu Jiujie’s accusations, and Quan Du identified himself as the Zidu Sect’s representative.
• Lu Jiujie accused Madam Xia of secretly meeting Heavenly Monarch Yuanxu, and Cang You captured and crippled him with Shuxuan Tower’s restrictions.
• Meng Du urged Madam Xia to treat Lu Jiujie as a lone plotter, while Kan Xingli and Xue Pingzhi redirected attention toward Yu Ci’s lingering influence and the ongoing duel.
• Madam Xia consulted leading sect representatives, who accepted leaving the lingering influence in place, and the gathering moved on while remaining uneasy.
• Ao Yang demanded that Zhang Tianji reveal who had requested their involvement, and Zhang Tianji privately gave him a name that left Ao Yang and Ao Xiu baffled.
• Yu Ci asked Xue Pingzhi about Liu Mingzhi and the Taishi Star contest, and she explained which factions might receive shares of its gains.