Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key plot points

• The power stored in the Immortal Pillar surges into Daoist Master Xuanwei, while dark-gold divine runes enter him as well. The opposing forces clash inside his body, injuring him and disrupting his aura.
• Xuanwei attacks Su Shi’er despite his weakened state. Su uses the Cloud-Sweeping technique to redirect most of the blow, but is still thrown against the pillar and injured.
• Wang Jingcheng sacrifices more blood and true essence to activate the damaged Celestial Observation Seal. A withered former Immortal raises a hand and summons a colossal finger of starlight, striking Xuanwei and forcing him to retreat.
• The strike exhausts the former Immortal’s remaining power, and its body crumbles. Xuanwei, badly wounded and wary of the forces inside him, withdraws with a threat to return.
• Su confirms Xuanwei has truly left, then helps the severely weakened Wang recover. They turn their attention to stabilizing the increasingly damaged Immortal Pillar, as its runes threaten to undermine their future efforts.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Shi’er shows resourcefulness and composure: he uses technique rather than brute strength against Xuanwei, recognizes that their survival was largely luck, and immediately prioritizes the larger crisis over his own injuries.
• Wang Jingcheng demonstrates resolve by expending his remaining strength to activate the seal and save Su. He is left close to collapse, and Su repays him by giving him medicine and supporting his recovery.
• Daoist Master Xuanwei remains a formidable threat even after being badly hurt. He blames Su for outmaneuvering him, retreats rather than risk worsening his condition, and vows revenge.
• Su and Wang act in close cooperation: Wang provides the decisive counterattack, while Su protects him afterward and continues suppressing the runes.

Significant themes

• Survival through cooperation and sacrifice: Wang’s self-sacrifice and Su’s quick response turn a losing confrontation into a narrow escape.
• The cost of power: Drawing on the pillar and the former Immortal’s remains inflicts severe strain and ultimately destroys the remains.
• Luck and vulnerability: Su recognizes that their victory depended on circumstance, emphasizing how dangerous the power gap remains.
• Urgency beyond the immediate battle: Xuanwei’s retreat does not resolve the crisis; the damaged pillar and spreading runes still threaten the group’s larger mission.

Plot points and events

• Su Shi’er has only temporarily suppressed the dark-gold runes damaging an Immortal Pillar. Once Wang Jingcheng recovers enough, he can use the power of an ancient Heavenly Palace Immortal to suppress them fully and help stabilize the pillar.
• After three days, Wang’s condition has steadied, though his injuries remain. He pays his respects to the dead Immortal whose Star Robe lies beside the pillar, and its last starlight fades.
• Wang agrees to guard the pillar. Using the Celestial Observation Seal to draw out the pillar’s immortal essence, he suppresses the dark-gold runes, while Su Shi’er spends over a month building layers of defensive formations around the site.
• Before Su Shi’er leaves to address the other pillars, Wang gives him a Jade Eye Tube containing records of spatial intersections in the Immortal Ruins. Wang suspects Exotic Space is also sealed by a formation. Su Shi’er accepts the information, seeing it as a chance to investigate and deepen his Array Dao knowledge.
• Elsewhere, Wujie detects a divine rune breaking and realizes an Immortal Pillar has reconnected to the Nine-Pole Transcendent Immortal Formation. He resolves to see how many pillars the unknown repairer can restore and sends the surrounding runes toward the others.

Character developments and interactions

• Wang Jingcheng proves dependable and dutiful: he takes over the ancient Immortal’s post, both to protect the pillar and to recover. He shares useful findings with Su Shi’er before they part.
• Su Shi’er remains practical and committed to repairing the wider system. Though uncertain how to save the other pillars, he continues onward and recognizes the potential value of Wang’s gift.
• Their exchange is marked by mutual trust and cooperation: Su Shi’er leaves Wang in charge, and Wang equips him with information for the journey.
• Wujie emerges as an active opponent, aware that the array is being repaired but unable to identify who is responsible.

Significant themes

• Duty and inheritance: Wang honors the fallen Heavenly Palace Immortal by continuing his guardianship.
• Cooperation against a larger threat: Su Shi’er and Wang combine their formation skills and knowledge to protect the Immortal Pillar.
• Hope under uncertainty: Repairing one pillar is progress, but the fate of the others remains unclear—and Wujie’s countermeasures are already spreading.

Key plot points

• While traveling through the Immortal Ruins toward another Immortal Pillar, Su Shi’er studies a Jade Eye Tube from Wang Jingcheng. It contains information about spatial formations and an incomplete image of a ruined lintel concealed behind floating boulders.
• The lintel’s surviving patterns resemble those on the damaged token Cen Yuting gave him. Su Shi’er suspects it marks Qionghua Palace’s Old Medicine Garden, though the evidence is incomplete and the area’s spatial layout may have changed over centuries.
• He considers the garden’s possible medicinal herbs and the Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pill. With the Heaven and Earth Furnace, he hopes he might refine even a flawed pill—potentially strengthening himself or helping Cen Yuting recover.
• Since Wang Jingcheng is already assisting with one Immortal Pillar and finding other suitable helpers seems unlikely, Su Shi’er recognizes that Cen Yuting’s restored strength could eventually help oversee another.
• After two days of cautious travel, Su Shi’er finds floating boulders matching those in the record. He tests the dangerous spatial gaps with stones: most are silently pulverized, but one passes through a narrow opening and is struck by a blue-green light, which sends it back. An array flag in Su Shi’er’s protective formation then trembles, signaling an unexpected reaction.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Shi’er remains careful and analytical, combining his knowledge of formations with controlled experiments rather than approaching the spatial anomaly recklessly. His curiosity about the medicine garden is driven by both the chance to obtain rare herbs and the possibility of aiding Cen Yuting.
• Cen Yuting does not appear directly, but his medicine-garden token gives Su Shi’er a possible lead, and Su Shi’er sees his recovery as a way to gain help with the Immortal Pillars.
• Wang Jingcheng contributes indirectly through the Jade Eye Tube, whose records guide Su Shi’er to the suspicious site.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and uncertainty: Old records offer clues, but centuries of shifting spatial forces make verification dangerous.
• Resourcefulness under pressure: Su Shi’er looks for unconventional means—especially the Heaven and Earth Furnace and Cen Yuting’s potential recovery—to meet the Immortal Ruins’ demands.
• Risk and restraint: The Ruins promise valuable rewards, but Su Shi’er prioritizes caution amid lethal formations and hidden enemies.

Chapter Summary: “Searching for the Medicine Garden”

Key plot points and events

• Su Shi’er probes the unstable spatial region between the rocks with his formation, carefully tracking where spatial turbulence appears and disappears.
• After more than ten days of observation, he discovers that the space becomes briefly stable whenever the half-hidden Azure Doorway emerges. He amplifies his formation at the right moment, parts the clouds and mist, and crosses into the Exotic Space.
• Near the doorway, he finds a flickering azure barrier. Beyond it lie a dim landscape, broken pillars, and withered vegetation—signs of the long-lost Medicine Garden.
• His battered wooden token reacts to the doorway’s markings, confirming its connection to the garden. Before attempting entry, Su Shi’er memorizes the entrance’s location, leaves his Cloud Root Void Ring outside so he can later return across the distance, and conceals it.
• Testing the barrier with his true essence triggers a powerful counterattack. He redirects the resulting azure force into the surrounding Exotic Space and realizes that entering without the proper method would be extremely dangerous.
• Recalling that the token is a Passage Token given to him by Cen Yuting, Su Shi’er considers whether Cen and Wang Jingcheng can be trusted. Reassured by Shen Miaoyin’s judgment and the circumstances of their earlier encounters, he presses the token to the barrier.
• The token dispels the barrier’s repelling force and opens a person-sized passage. The scent of plants drifts out, signaling that entry is possible.

Character developments

• Su Shi’er demonstrates patience, precision, and caution. Rather than rush toward the doorway, he studies the shifting spatial forces for days and prepares a way back before risking entry.
• He remains wary even when the token appears genuine, testing the barrier and weighing the motives of those who gave him information or aid.
• His confidence grows once he confirms that the token works, though the formidable restrictions make clear that danger remains.

Character interactions

• Su Shi’er’s decision to trust the Passage Token rests partly on Shen Miaoyin’s apparent approval and his assessment that Cen Yuting may simply have been weakened and stranded in the Immortal Ruins.
• He also considers Wang Jingcheng’s character and the fact that Su Shi’er had saved him from Daoist Master Xuanwei, concluding that deception is unlikely.
• No direct conversation occurs in this chapter; these earlier relationships shape Su Shi’er’s choices.

Significant themes

• Caution and preparation: Careful observation and planning are essential to surviving a hostile, unpredictable environment.
• Trust under uncertainty: Su Shi’er must judge whether to rely on the people connected to the token despite incomplete information.
• Hidden opportunity and danger: The Medicine Garden promises discovery, but its powerful restrictions make reaching it a serious challenge.

Key plot points and events

• Su Shi’er discovers a vast stone-and-wood puppet guarding the Medicine Garden. Though initially weak, it draws power from the Garden and rapidly grows to Tribulation Crossing-level strength.
• He spots a surviving patch of vegetation and a flicker of what may be the legendary immortal medicine. Reaching it means getting past the puppet.
• Su Shi’er uses the Medicine Garden Passage Token, which briefly makes the puppet stop. A second force then interferes, sending the puppet into a frenzy; it strikes the barrier as Su Shi’er retreats.
• Reasoning that a prolonged fight could further damage the Garden and its medicine, Su Shi’er prepares star-patterned chains and enters through the token-created gap.
• Inside, he evades the puppet’s crushing blows and redirects one with his Cloud-Sweeping technique, using his defensive cultivation to withstand the remaining force.
• The puppet’s vines draw plant essence from the Garden’s fields to replenish it. Su Shi’er binds its arms with the chains, but they begin breaking almost immediately.
• He exploits the brief restraint to reach the puppet and sees a long crack in the crimson plate on its chest. The token and the plate’s power respond to one another, while an unexplained second force also acts through the plate.

Character developments

• Su Shi’er shows caution and close observation, weighing the risks to himself against the possibility of harming the immortal medicine.
• He demonstrates adaptability and battle experience, combining misdirection, defensive techniques, and a short-lived restraint rather than trying to overpower the puppet.
• The puppet is revealed as a powerful guardian whose strength is linked to the Medicine Garden, but its behavior is disrupted by conflicting forces.

Character interactions

• Su Shi’er’s token briefly affects the puppet, suggesting it should recognize or obey the token’s authority.
• Another, unidentified force overrides that response and provokes the puppet to attack.
• The puppet’s strikes threaten Su Shi’er and shake the Garden, while its vines siphon vitality from the surrounding fields.

Significant themes

• Control versus interference: The token’s authority is challenged by an unknown power.
• Power drawn from the environment: The puppet’s strength depends on the Garden, tying its survival to the place it guards.
• Caution and strategy: Su Shi’er seeks to preserve the rare medicine and wins openings through observation and timing rather than brute force.
• Fragile preservation: The cracked chest plate and dimming fields suggest the Garden and its guardian may both be deteriorating.

Su Shi'er subdued the out-of-control puppet with the Medicine Garden Token after the Crimson Wooden Plate broke through his seals, then began harvesting the Medicine Garden’s surviving herbs. He leaves off after spotting withered branches a thousand zhang away.

• Su Shi'er used an array, the Innate Five Swords, and two sealing arts to suppress the puppet, but the Crimson Wooden Plate shattered its restraints and made its power surge.
• Su Shi'er struck the puppet with the Medicine Garden Passage Token, froze it, and stored it away.
• Su Shi'er surveyed the ruined Medicine Fields and found surviving young Immortal Medicine and a few aged herbs.
• Su Shi'er moved through the fields, transferring the remaining Spiritual Plants and Immortal Medicine into the Small World within the Nine Heavens Exquisite Pagoda.
• Su Shi'er stopped when he noticed withered branches a thousand zhang away.

Su Shi'er tried to salvage the Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pill ingredients as the Medicine Garden collapsed. He discovered a concealed little golden tree, but his attempt to probe it triggered an unexpected change.

• Su Shi'er recognized the red marrow immortal vine, azure essence immortal fungus, and Soul-Quelling Jade Lotus, then realized the widening fissure was destroying the Medicine Garden.
• Su Shi'er failed to stabilize the garden with a formation and decided to collect the valuable medicinal plants before it collapsed.
• Su Shi'er found the supplementary herbs for the Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pill and stored them along with the red marrow immortal vine and azure essence immortal fungus.
• A stone pillar toppled as the fissure spread, and Su Shi'er saw the Soul-Quelling Jade Lotus lose water and an outer petal wither.
• Su Shi'er spotted a restriction-protected little golden tree with a patterned fruit and sent true essence to probe it, triggering an unexpected change.

Su Shi'er collected the Soul-Quelling Jade Lotus and a golden seed as the Medicine Garden collapsed into spatial turbulence. He escaped through the gateway with an injured arm, returned to the Immortal Ruins, and watched the entrance disappear.

• Su Shi'er abandoned the little golden tree after its roots triggered powerful restrictions and spatial turbulence.
• He used spirit crystals to shield the Soul-Quelling Jade Lotus, then gathered it, its root, the remaining pool water, and nearby ingredients into his Small World.
• As the garden collapsed, Su Shi'er spotted and collected a golden seed from the turbulence before fleeing toward the gateway.
• Spatial power struck Su Shi'er as he escaped, wounding his left arm, but he used the Cloud Root Void Ring to return to the Immortal Ruins.
• Su Shi'er fled three thousand feet from the gateway and saw the Medicine Garden vanish beneath a gray-white sea of clouds.

Su Shi'er examined the plants and puppet he had taken from the Medicine Garden, then discovered that the puppet could strengthen the vitality of his Small World's medicinal fields. The golden seed gained a few faint traces of vitality, while Su Shi'er wondered whether the puppet would attack anyone who entered its fields.

• Su Shi'er replanted most of the collected immortal medicines and spiritual plants in the Small World and planted the seemingly lifeless golden seed in a separate medicinal field.
• Su Shi'er examined the Medicine Garden Puppet but could not activate it or identify how it worked, so he sent it into the Small World.
• The puppet began glowing upon touching the ground and released a mysterious aura into the earth beneath it.
• Su Shi'er moved the puppet to the Medicine Fields and saw its aura strengthen as it increased the fields' vitality and helped the transplanted plants recover.
• Su Shi'er noticed a few traces of vitality entering the golden seed and wondered whether the puppet would attack living beings that entered its Medicine Fields.

Su Shi'er tested the Medicine Garden Puppet and found that divine power could drive it to Tribulation Crossing strength, but its tendency to attack nearby living beings remained uncontrolled. After gathering the ingredients for the Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pill, he decided to refine it to aid Cen Yuting and help secure another Immortal Pillar.

• Su Shi'er summoned Turtle Daoist to test the Medicine Garden Puppet, which absorbed the Medicine Fields' vital energy and rose to the late Spirit Severing stage.
• Divine power flowed into the puppet, raising it to the Tribulation Crossing stage, and it attacked Turtle Daoist despite his use of the Medicine Garden Token.
• Su Shi'er intervened to cut off the puppet's access to energy and its awareness of Turtle Daoist, then sent Turtle Daoist back to his Seclusion Cave Abode to cultivate.
• Su Shi'er concluded that the uncontrollable puppet could still help grow spiritual plants and serve in battle, though he could not yet explain its behavior.
• Su Shi'er decided to refine the Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pill with the ingredients he had gathered, so Cen Yuting could recover strength and help guard another Immortal Pillar.
• Su Shi'er considered the shared need to repair the Nine-Pole Transcendent Immortal Formation, and his aura abruptly surged.

Su Shi'er prepared to refine the Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pill, first expelling spatial energy from his arm and arranging nine Pill Furnaces with the Fire Essence’s help. His first attempt to process the red marrow immortal vine revealed its medicinal power was dangerously violent, and he continued refining the ingredients despite the difficulty.

• Su Shi'er used the Spatial Secret Law to isolate and expel the spatial energy lodged in his wound, then rested until his true essence circulated smoothly again.
• Su Shi'er inspected a Spirit Treasure-grade Pill Furnace and gathered the Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pill’s main and auxiliary ingredients from the Nine Heavens Exquisite Pagoda.
• Su Shi'er arranged nine Pill Furnaces in the nine palaces eight trigrams formation and planned to combine the Medicine King Divine Canon with the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Alchemy Art.
• Su Shi'er summoned the Fire Essence and assigned him to control the flames beneath the Pill Furnaces.
• Su Shi'er began refining the red marrow immortal vine, but its medicinal power surged through his true essence and nearly disturbed his blood and qi.
• Su Shi'er used the nine Pill Furnaces and formation to disperse the vine’s violent power, then continued processing the main and auxiliary ingredients.

Su Shi'er struggled for eighty-one days to refine immortal pills from damaged medicinal ingredients, but his pill furnaces repeatedly exploded and ruined most of the pills. He condensed three ruined pills and placed one inside the Heaven and Earth Furnace to test whether it could restore immortal pills.

• Su Shi'er used two alchemy arts to condense medicinal liquid in nine pill furnaces after purging the ingredients of impurities.
• The Central Palace pill furnace cracked, so Su Shi'er transferred the half-formed pills to another furnace just before it exploded.
• As more furnaces shattered, Su Shi'er kept moving the pills and continued refining despite the blasts and his weakening aura.
• With the final furnace destroyed, Su Shi'er used a formation infused with the Heaven and Earth Furnace's azure light to preserve the five remaining clusters of medicinal liquid.
• Two clusters turned to ash, but Su Shi'er condensed three gray, foul-smelling ruined pills and considered the result worthwhile.
• Su Shi'er placed one ruined pill inside the Heaven and Earth Furnace to see whether it could restore an immortal pill.

Su Shi'er refined two supreme-grade Three-Source Immortal-Nourishing Pills and healed his injuries by absorbing a wisp of their spiritual essence. He diverted from his plan to visit Cen Yuting and headed for the Ancient Battlefield's Immortal Pillar, where he encountered dark figures that reformed after being cut apart.

• Su Shi'er used the Heaven and Earth Furnace to turn one failed pill into a low-grade immortal pill and two others into supreme-grade immortal pills.
• Su Shi'er absorbed a wisp of medicinal essence from a supreme-grade pill, and his injuries healed completely by the next day.
• Su Shi'er planned to bring a pill to Cen Yuting, but the Array Hub Token showed fierce killing intent surging from the Immortal Pillar near the Ancient Battlefield.
• Su Shi'er traveled west toward the troubled Immortal Pillar, passing through terrain scarred by powerful blade and sword techniques.
• On the third day, Su Shi'er saw golden light cleave several dark figures in two, only for them to rejoin, and he concealed himself behind a broken boulder.

Su Shi'er discovered the Golden Baleful Patriarch fighting endlessly reviving weapons around the Immortal Pillar and considered recruiting him to guard it. After Su Shi'er revealed himself, the force behind the battlefield attacked him with skeletal corpses, and the chapter ended as black clouds descended toward him.

• Su Shi'er watched the Golden Baleful Patriarch shatter a Broken Greatsword, only for battlefield forces to restore it and raise more weapons against him.
• Su Shi'er sensed four interlinked auras replenishing the broken weapons and dimming the Array Hub Token's point of light.
• The Golden Baleful Patriarch detected Su Shi'er and called him out, so Su Shi'er stepped from behind the rocks.
• A hoarse voice behind the Immortal Pillar declared it needed two more bodies, as skeletons and corpse aura attacked Su Shi'er from the ground.
• Su Shi'er deflected a Broken Halberd and dragged out a Skeletal Corpse, but it reassembled and attacked him again.
• As the Skeletal Corpse swung its Broken Halberd at Su Shi'er, the black clouds overhead sank toward him.

Su Shi'er and the Golden Baleful Patriarch faced an elder who used the four baleful intents and Skeletal Corpses to trap and attack them. The gray-robed elder emerged from behind the Immortal Pillar and summoned his forces, while Su Shi'er recognized how the different intents were connected.

• Su Shi'er used Miro Heaven Hand: Mountain-Suppressing to flatten a ten-thousand-zhang peak and disperse the Corpse Aura gathered there.
• Su Shi'er joined the Golden Baleful Patriarch, who shattered a wave of broken weapons with saber Qi.
• Su Shi'er warned that the auras underground and overhead were cooperating, and the Golden Baleful Patriarch explained the four baleful intents and the trap surrounding the Immortal Pillar.
• A gray-robed elder emerged from the black mist, declared that the Golden Baleful Patriarch would die, and summoned Skeletal Corpses around himself.
• Su Shi'er noticed the corpses’ broken weapons carried Warrior Baleful Intent and their inner auras resonated with the Heavenly and Earthly Baleful Intents.

Su Shi'er and the Golden Baleful Patriarch faced a gray-robed elder who unleashed the ancient array of four baleful intents, trapping them amid skeletal corpses and broken weapons. As Su Shi'er struggled to hold off the elder’s attack, he suspected the Golden Baleful Patriarch had come for the killing intent origin, but the Patriarch saw through Su Shi’er’s denial.

• The gray-robed elder revealed that he wanted to use Su Shi'er and the Golden Baleful Patriarch as substitutes for the ruined corpse soldiers in the array’s baleful eyes.
• The elder activated the array, raising thousands of skeletal corpses and broken weapons and sealing off Su Shi'er and the Golden Baleful Patriarch’s escape routes.
• Su Shi'er deployed array flags and magical treasures to defend against the elder’s saber, but the elder strengthened his assault and shattered the array flags.
• Su Shi'er noticed a faint, pure killing intent where the four baleful intents converged and asked the Golden Baleful Patriarch to help, but the Patriarch claimed he was injured.
• Su Shi'er concluded the Golden Baleful Patriarch had come for the killing intent origin, and the Patriarch dismissed Su Shi'er’s denial as deception.

Su Shi'er and the Golden Baleful Patriarch argued over the source of killing intent while a gray-robed elder attacked them. Su Shi'er tried to persuade the patriarch to cooperate in repairing the Immortal Pillar, but the chapter ended with the patriarch still suspicious.

• Su Shi'er turned his formation against the Golden Baleful Patriarch, sending broken weapons and reassembling skeletal corpses to attack him.
• The Golden Baleful Patriarch destroyed the attacks and admitted his injuries had improved, while Su Shi'er exposed that he was still holding back.
• Su Shi'er opened a seeming escape route and said he would leave rather than face the enemy alone or risk the patriarch turning against him.
• The Golden Baleful Patriarch offered to share the source of killing intent to keep Su Shi'er from leaving.
• Su Shi'er declined the source and explained that he had come to repair the Immortal Pillar, warning that the Immortal Ruins could trap them and that divine beings were plotting through its formation.