Chapter Summaries

Gu Xing killed Xiao Sheng and Hu Su with his Hidden Light sword strike before Gu Changqing revealed himself through Shui Xu and offered him the Dragon Monarch’s throne in exchange for submission. Gu Xing refused, and Gu Changqing summoned two seventh-tier demons; Daoist Danyuan emerged from the prison depths as the confrontation turned dire.

• Gu Xing’s Hidden Light sword intent killed Xiao Sheng and Hu Su, while Tianyue realized how formidable he had become.
• Gu Changqing revealed himself through Shui Xu, disparaged Gu Jingming, and offered Gu Xing a chance to become Dragon Monarch if he submitted.
• Gu Xing refused Gu Changqing’s offer, arguing that Gu Changqing and Gu Changze could not openly kill the Crown Prince without losing support and their claim to the fruit status.
• Gu Changqing summoned two seventh-tier demons from the Northern Sky Prison’s depths, surrounding Gu Xing with overwhelming force.
• A black-and-gold centipede emerged from the ground and transformed into Daoist Danyuan, a powerful demon imprisoned by Gu Jingming a thousand years earlier.

Gu Xing faced Daoist Danyuan and Lingmiaozi after Shui Xu recruited them to kill him, while Rogue Du'e struggled against Liu Sui. Gu Xing shattered Lingmiaozi’s three-thousand-soldier formation with two sword intents and prepared to reveal a greater power.

• Shui Xu offered Daoist Danyuan and Lingmiaozi freedom and other rewards if they killed Gu Xing, and both agreed to attack him.
• Lingmiaozi summoned three thousand fifth-tier cavalry with her Military School Divine Ability, Iron Steeds and Frozen River Enter the Dream.
• Gu Xing used two sword intents to destroy the cavalry formation and burn away the conjured water.
• Lingmiaozi recognized Gu Xing’s Hidden Light and Flame Domain sword intents, while Liu Sui realized he had concealed his mastery of the Heaven-Burning Sword Intent.
• Gu Xing said sixth-tier cultivation was no longer enough as his aura and sword intent continued to grow.

Gu Xing revealed his stabilized seventh-tier cultivation, shocking Tianyue and Ye Chenjun and forcing Shui Xu to revise his plans. Lingmiaozi and Daoist Danyuan agreed to attack Gu Xing for new rewards, and Daoist Danyuan began using the Azure Firmament Thunder Method inside the sealed Northern Sky Prison.

• Gu Xing's aura surged from the sixth tier to the seventh, and Tianyue and Ye Chenjun stopped fighting to watch.
• Shui Xu explained that Gu Xing's death could weaken Gu Jingming's hold on Can Shui's fruit status and demanded that Lingmiaozi and Daoist Danyuan kill him.
• Lingmiaozi and Daoist Danyuan renegotiated their rewards with Shui Xu, securing water spirit essence and a Dao field in Northern Flow.
• Lingmiaozi and Daoist Danyuan prepared to fight Gu Xing together within the sealed Northern Sky Prison.
• Daoist Danyuan swept his horsetail whisk and began tracing talismans to summon the Azure Firmament Thunder Method.

True Person Dan Yuan unleashed Immortal Capital Thunder against Gu Xing in the Northern Sky Prison, expecting the seventh-tier divine ability to overwhelm him. Gu Xing’s Violet True Dragon form emerged unharmed, and he told Dan Yuan that his thunder mastery was inadequate and his attack too weak.

• Lingmiaozi recognized Dan Yuan’s Azure Firmament Thunder Method and wondered how he had acquired the Northern Thunder Palace inheritance.
• Dan Yuan summoned Immortal Capital Thunder, forcing the prison’s fighters to pause as tribulation clouds gathered overhead.
• Dan Yuan unleashed the thunder at Gu Xing, while Liu Sui and Rogue Du'e remained locked in their own battle.
• Gu Xing formed his Violet True Dragon body and endured the thunder, which also annihilated thousands of demons in the prison.
• Tianyue and Ye Chenjun were stunned when Gu Xing emerged unharmed, and Gu Xing told Dan Yuan his thunder mastery was lacking and his attack was too weak.

Gu Xing endured True Person Dan Yuan’s thunder attack, then used the World-Cleansing Divine Ability to devour Dan Yuan’s thunderclouds and artifacts. Lingmiaozi followed with a weak-water assault and trapped Gu Xing and the others inside a projected ancient battlefield, leaving Ye Chenjun fearing for the Third Prince.

• True Person Dan Yuan swallowed a pill, summoned his thunder hammer and nail, and unleashed Primordial Hound Thunder at Gu Xing.
• Gu Xing explained that Dan Yuan’s thunder was rootless within Azure Sea Lake, then sent his purple dragon to swallow the thunderclouds and dissolve the attack.
• The purple dragon devoured Dan Yuan’s thunder artifacts, leaving Dan Yuan stunned and without the will to fight.
• Shui Xu recognized Gu Xing’s attack as the World-Cleansing Divine Ability, while Lingmiaozi concealed her reaction and prepared to strike.
• Lingmiaozi used an ancient inkstone to unleash crushing weak water that drove back Gu Xing’s true dragon, then projected a sealed ancient battlefield around them.
• Ye Chenjun realized Lingmiaozi had trapped them in her Military Slaughter Domain and feared for the Third Prince.

Lingmiaozi trapped Gu Xing’s divine soul in an ancient battlefield and attacked his body with a costly treasure fan, believing she could kill him and seize his fortune. The battlefield then came alive and the Immortal Capital Thunder appeared again, as a voice challenged Dan Yuan to witness a true Thunder Method.

• Lingmiaozi used her Military School divine ability to drag Gu Xing’s divine soul into an ancient battlefield, while his purple dragon natal body continued resisting the Weak Water.
• Lingmiaozi revealed that she intended to kill Gu Xing and take his fortune, then unleashed her treasure fan’s Threefold Furnace Wind at his exposed body.
• The wind destroyed Gu Xing’s purple dragon natal body but continued raging around him beyond Lingmiaozi’s control, despite the fan’s final use costing her six hundred years of lifespan.
• The ancient battlefield began to writhe and expand, forcing Tianyue, Ye Chenjun, and Lingmiaozi to retreat as its ghostly souls were released.
• Dan Yuan saw Immortal Capital Thunder gather again, and a voice declared, “Dan Yuan, behold a true Thunder Method!”

Xiao Minghuan and her companions witnessed the Northern Sky Prison’s revolt and feared for Gu Xing as three seventh-tier cultivators attacked him. Gu Xing purified the ancient battlefield with the Immortal Capital Thunder Method, then bound Shui Xu and won the other attackers’ respect, but Shui Xu still threatened them with the Prison Slave.

• Xiao Minghuan, Goodman Bloodpine, and the Azure Void Sword Immortal discovered demons overrunning the Northern Sky Prison and identified Marquis Wu Ze, Gu Changqing, as the likely mastermind targeting Gu Xing.
• Xiao Minghuan sensed seventh-tier auras and warned that Gu Xing faced a dangerous Thunder Method and a military reenactment art carrying the spiritual intent of eighth-tier cultivators.
• Gu Xing redirected True Person Dan Yuan’s lightning through his nail and hammer artifacts, purifying the ancient battlefield and releasing the trapped heroic souls.
• True Person Dan Yuan admired Gu Xing’s mastery, and Gu Xing returned from the battlefield projection unharmed while holding Lingmiaozi’s whirlwind.
• Dan Yuan and Lingmiaozi restrained Shui Xu and greeted Gu Xing as the Third Prince, but Shui Xu reminded them that he held the Prison Slave.

Gu Xing killed Rogue Du'e with his combined sword intents after his Chamber Mansion divine light drained Du'e’s lifespan and Du'e’s blood sword failed to secure his escape. With Shui Xu’s clone destroyed and the Northern Sky Prison’s demons subdued, Gu Xing wondered what had happened outside and how the battle would affect his reputation.

• Lingmiaozi and Dan Yuan abandoned their agreement with Du'e and offered to help Gu Xing, but he refused because Du'e had wounded Liu Sui.
• Gu Xing unleashed Hearth Fire Divine Light, which locked onto Du'e and rapidly drained his lifespan while terrifying Lingmiaozi and Dan Yuan.
• Du'e summoned a blood sword that cut through the divine light and opened a rift in space, but the rift closed before he could escape.
• Gu Xing used Hidden Light and Heaven-Burning to destroy Du'e’s body and divine soul, then collected Du'e’s swords and Crimson Gourd.
• Gu Xing destroyed Shui Xu’s clone, while Dan Yuan and Lingmiaozi stood down and the others regrouped amid the prison’s ruins.
• Gu Xing declared that the Northern Sky Prison’s conflict was over and wondered what had happened beyond its walls.

Gu Rui found Gu Xing alive in the Northern Sky Prison, where Lingmiaozi and Daoist Danyuan had pledged their service to him. After Gu Xing emerged to a waiting army, the prison rebellion was officially blamed on Shui Xu alone, while rumors spread across Azure Sea Lake that Gu Xing possessed immense hidden strength.

• Gu Rui and his companions entered the ruins, feared Gu Xing had died, and then found him alive beside Lingmiaozi and Daoist Danyuan.
• Gu Xing revealed that Lingmiaozi and Daoist Danyuan had submitted to him and claimed he had killed Shui Xu and the others, leaving Gu Rui stunned.
• Gu Xing led the group out of the Northern Sky Prison, where the Spirit-Commanding Army and other onlookers greeted him.
• The Longze Marquis Residence retook the prison and declared Shui Xu the sole mastermind of the rebellion, absolving the Arrowfish Tribe.
• Rumors spread across Azure Sea Lake that Gu Xing had concealed seventh-tier or even eighth-tier cultivation and had slain a seventh-tier Demon Ancestor.

After returning to Tai Chi Hall from the Northern Sky Prison, the Third Prince strengthened his forces, refined new treasures, and mastered the Righteous Thought Sword. When he activated Du'e's crimson gourd, its blood sword summoned a powerful white-robed man who introduced himself as Xuanji, the Sword Ancestor's fourth disciple.

• The Third Prince settled Daoist Danyuan, Lingmiaozi, and Ye Chenjun at Tai Chi Hall and recognized that the Heir Apparent Contest had become an open struggle.
• He named Du'e's two upper-grade spirit treasures Full Moon and Ice Soul, then condensed the Righteous Thought Sword and added it to his three sword intents.
• The Third Prince activated the crimson gourd, and its blood sword challenged him after demanding a sacrifice.
• The blood sword attacked, but the Third Prince blocked it with his sword intents and restrained it with the Water-Fire Gourd.
• The blood sword manifested a dangerous phantom that quieted it, then became a white-robed man who recognized the Third Prince's bloodline and introduced himself as Xuanji, the Sword Ancestor's fourth disciple.

Xuanji revealed that he was the fourth disciple of the Sword Ancestor’s human incarnation, who had used his disciples as nourishment to prolong his life. After Xuanji explained how Gongyang Yu helped the disciples kill their master, he offered to pass his sword way to the protagonist, who remained wary.

• The protagonist questioned Xuanji’s claim and learned that the Sword Ancestor had gone mad while pursuing ascension, then cleaved himself into human, demonic, and demon incarnations.
• Xuanji revealed that the Sword Ancestor was half human and half demon, and that his human incarnation had forced the Seven Mysteries Daoist Sect to seal its mountain for eight hundred years.
• The protagonist deduced that Xuanji had killed his master, and Xuanji admitted that the human incarnation had taken four disciples as part of a scheme to use them as nourishment.
• Xuanji explained that Gongyang Yu helped the disciples escape their master’s control and kill him, though their corrupted foundations left Xuanji with only a yang spirit and his natal essence treasure.
• Xuanji destroyed the childlike spirit on the Blood-Colored Dharma Sword and offered the protagonist his lifetime’s sword way, while the protagonist suspected the offer came at a price.

Gu Xing rejected Xuanji’s offer to teach him the Sword Way until he understood its risks and hidden motives. Xuanji revealed the Sword Classic’s cauldron furnace danger and offered to help Gu Xing claim the Three Stars Water Fruit Status, leaving them negotiating the price of his instruction.

• Gu Xing refused to learn the Sword Way, citing his existing Water and Fire inheritances and the danger of drawing the Sword Ancestor’s incarnations as enemies.
• Xuanji demonstrated powerful sword intents and the World-Covering Sword Classic, then explained that only cultivators with a lucid sword heart could comprehend it.
• Xuanji admitted that the Sword Ancestor had used his disciples as nourishment through a cauldron furnace bond, but claimed he had found a way to break the method and swore a Heavenly Way Oath.
• Xuanji offered to help Gu Xing seize the Three Stars Water Fruit Status in exchange for cultivating Can Shui abilities and receiving a body with Pure Water Demonic Dragon blood.
• Gu Xing refused to sacrifice his clansmen and demanded that Xuanji teach him additional Sword Way divine abilities instead.

Gu Xing agreed to trade with Xuanji as a fellow Daoist and received the upper volume of the World-Covering Sword Classic, a vast inheritance detailing the Sword Way through the eighth tier. After months of study, he discovered that reaching the eighth tier required a rare Sword Way Innate Spiritual Treasure and all thirty-six origin sword intents, while the method for attaining fruit status was absent.

• Gu Xing agreed to Xuanji's terms, including finding him a suitable body, but refused a formal master-disciple relationship to avoid deeper karmic ties.
• Xuanji explained that he could help Gu Xing fight powerful enemies and revealed that he had stayed in Azure Sea Lake hoping to use Gu Xing's three stars water fruit status to return to the eighth tier.
• Xuanji gave Gu Xing the World-Covering Sword Classic and explained its ten levels, including the Sword Ancestor's three ninth-tier avatars and the tenth realm beyond fruit status.
• Gu Xing absorbed the Sword Classic's immense sword intent and spent several dozen days studying its scripture.
• Gu Xing fully grasped the upper volume and learned that the eighth tier required a rare Sword Way Innate Spiritual Treasure and mastery of all thirty-six origin sword intents, while the path to fruit status was not included.

Gu Xing spent twenty years mastering the first part of the "World-Covering Sword Classic" and unified its thirty-six sword intents as Myriad Forms Returning to the Hidden. He reached the threshold of the eighth tier of the Sword Way, while Xuanji recognized how close he was to breaking through.

• Xuanji guarded Gu Xing as he cultivated, astonished when Gu Xing comprehended the Sword Classic’s first ten sword intents in five years and advanced from the sixth tier to the seventh.
• Gu Xing struggled to comprehend further sword intents, then spent years studying the Sword Ancestor’s reflections and realized the sword dancer in his Heart Sea was his own sword shadow.
• Gu Xing mastered all thirty-six sword intents and merged them into Myriad Forms Returning to the Hidden, uniting them with his Heaven-Burning, Hidden Light, and Right Mindfulness sword intents.
• Gu Xing placed the World-Covering Sword Classic on his spiritual dais, recognizing it as an eighth-tier Sword Way treasure that could support his advancement.
• After guarding Gu Xing for twenty years, Xuanji saw that Gu Xing had condensed his sword intent and stood one step from entering the eighth tier.

Gu Xing refined the Sword Embryo inside Xuanji’s gourd and condensed his natal sword intent, “Myriad Forms Returning to the Hidden.” After six years of unusually smooth refinement and a further wait for the tribulation clouds to disperse, he reached the eighth tier, leaving Xuanji’s plans for the Azure Sea Lake struggle within reach.

• Xuanji brought Gu Xing into the heavenly grotto inside his Crimson Gourd so Gu Xing could break through without revealing his cultivation at Azure Sea Lake.
• Xuanji explained that his senior brother’s Heaven-Escaping Sword Intent concealed Gu Xing’s breakthrough from those who might divine his fate.
• Gu Xing began refining the eighth-tier Sword Embryo, while Xuanji guarded him and warned that failure could delay his breakthrough for centuries.
• After four years, Gu Xing had refined more than half the Sword Embryo with unexpected ease, and Xuanji realized his natal sword intent might be unusually high-grade.
• Gu Xing completed the refinement in six years and condensed his natal sword intent, “Myriad Forms Returning to the Hidden,” opening the gate to the eighth tier.
• After another half year, the tribulation clouds dispersed, and Gu Xing opened his eyes having attained the eighth tier.

After more than thirty years in seclusion, Gu Xing emerged having reached the eighth tier of sword cultivation and gave Xuanji the Pure Water Life-Ordering Book. Liu Sui told him that the Jianmu Assembly had lasted nearly sixty years and that the Qi Mountain Demon Emperor had died there.

• Gu Xing left the heavenly grotto with Xuanji and gave him the Pure Water Life-Ordering Book so he could cultivate toward the three stars water fruit status.
• Gu Xing and Xuanji discussed their Dao insights, and Xuanji warned him that Gongyang Yu was an exceptionally powerful cultivator.
• Xuanji withdrew into the Sword-Nurturing Gourd after promising to intervene against powerful enemies up to three times.
• Gu Xing ended his thirty-year seclusion and reunited with Liu Sui, who sensed that his sword cultivation had advanced.
• Liu Sui told Gu Xing that the Jianmu Assembly concerned the young lady and that the Qi Mountain Demon Emperor had died there.

After emerging from thirty years of seclusion, the Third Prince learned that the Qi Mountain Demon Emperor had died and that the Dragon Monarch and other Demon Kings were trapped inside Jianmu, throwing Southern Shu and Azure Sea Lake into uncertainty. As Tai Chi Hall’s forces awaited him, Du Ziqian began recounting the political and military changes that had gathered around Azure Sea Lake during his absence.

• Liu Sui told the Third Prince that the Divine Silkworm Daoist had escaped Jianmu and reported that the Qi Mountain Demon Emperor died after trying to seize lifespan from trapped Demon Kings, including the Dragon Monarch.
• The Third Prince realized the crisis could spark a struggle over Fruit Statuses across Southern Shu and threaten Azure Sea Lake while his parents remained trapped.
• The Third Prince left seclusion and met Tai Chi Hall’s gathered leaders, including Liu Sui, True Person Daoyuan, Lingmiaozi, Ye Chenjun, and his loyal commanders.
• The Third Prince asked Du Ziqian for an account of Azure Sea Lake, and Du Ziqian reported that Gu Feng, Gu Rui, Gu Changqing, and a hundred-thousand-strong army from Flame Mountain had arrived during the Third Prince’s seclusion.

With Gu Jingming and his wife trapped in Jianmu, Gu Xing faced rival eighth-tier uncles and mounting pressure from their factions as Azure Sea Lake's struggle for the three stars water fruit status began. He secured the loyalty of Tai Chi Hall's core, then received an unexpected visit from Hu Xiaozi, leader of the Water Owl Tribe, one of the Top Three Clans.

• Du Ziqian reported that Gu Changze and Gu Changqing had amassed forces, while the Longze Marquis Residence suppressed Tai Chi Hall and Flame Mountain sent a hundred thousand Dao soldiers to support Gu Changqing.
• Gu Xing told Tai Chi Hall's retainers they could leave, but Daoyuan, Lingmiaozi, Du Ziqian, Elder Mo, Ling Mei, and the Spirit-Commanding Army's commanders pledged themselves to him.
• Gu Xing asked Zhang Chi to summon the Water Tiger Tribe, and Zhang Chi revealed that its forty thousand troops stood ready to obey.
• A guard announced that Hu Xiaozi, leader of the Water Owl Tribe, had come to request an audience with Gu Xing.

As Gu Xing emerged from seclusion and prepared for Azure Sea Lake’s succession struggle, Hu Xiaozi pledged the Water Owl Tribe’s forces to him in exchange for a promise to destroy the Blood Demon Cavern. Jiang Ziyang then arrived as a representative of Azure Sea Lake’s human powers, leaving Gu Xing with support from two major factions.

• Hu Xiaozi visited Gu Xing’s Tai Chi Hall and praised his composure, while Gu Xing said he would put Azure Sea Lake’s interests before family ties.
• Hu Xiaozi committed the Water Owl Tribe’s three seventh-tier cultivators and hundred thousand Dao soldiers to Gu Xing, asking him to destroy the Blood Demon Cavern.
• Gu Xing accepted the Water Owl Tribe’s blood debt as his own and promised to repay it.
• Hu Xiaozi predicted another important guest would arrive, and a guard announced Jiang Ziyang’s visit.
• Jiang Ziyang greeted Gu Xing, signaling that Azure Sea Lake’s human powers had also chosen to support him.

Gu Xing gained the full support of Azure Sea Lake’s human factions after Jiang Ziyang explained that Lu Chen’s legacy had convinced him to back the Third Prince. As Gu Xing’s allies planned to seize the Azure Sea Dragon Palace, Liu Sui concealed the lack of news from Blazing Sun Mountain, and an envoy arrived with an invitation to a palace banquet.

• Jiang Ziyang pledged four seventh-tier cultivators and hundreds of thousands of Dao Soldiers to Gu Xing, explaining that Lu Chen’s legacy had shaped his decision.
• Gu Xing learned that the humans’ support would strengthen his position and took his place among the allies gathered in Tai Chi Hall.
• Hu Xiaozi asked about Blazing Sun Mountain, and Liu Sui assured the group that its patriarch had made arrangements, concealing that her secret messages had received no reply.
• Du Ziqian began outlining a plan for the allied forces to seize the Azure Sea Dragon Palace and claim its authority.
• A guard reported that an envoy from the Longze Marquis Residence had invited Gu Xing to a banquet in the Azure Sea Dragon Palace the next day.