Chapter Summaries

Jiang Lu traveled to the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground to use its abundant plant vitality and Jianmu's fruit to aid her cultivation. After arriving, she was welcomed by Hu Meier, who escorted her toward the palaces and warned her about the sacred ground's formations.

• Jiang Lu decided to visit the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground and Azure Mist Valley to temper herself and pursue a Nascent Soul breakthrough.
• Le Ziyan sensed Jiang Lu approaching and sent her disciple Hu Meier to welcome her.
• Jiang Lu traveled by Spirit Boat overnight and admired the vast sea of flowers and floating palaces of the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground.
• Hu Meier introduced herself as Le Ziyan's disciple and escorted Jiang Lu into the sacred ground.
• Hu Meier warned Jiang Lu to stay close because the sacred ground contained dangerous formations.

Jiang Lu met Le Ziyan at the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground and learned that the powers were watching changes in the world’s fortune. Le Ziyan warned that they might mistake Jiang Lu for the chaotic aura behind those changes, leaving her vulnerable to attack.

• Shen Meier brought Jiang Lu to the floating main hall, passing Elf cultivators and explaining the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground’s ties with the Elves.
• Shen Meier carried Jiang Lu to the hall on glowing spirit vines and introduced her to Le Ziyan.
• Le Ziyan told Jiang Lu that the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion had detected two stars drawing the world’s disordered fortune back into alignment while a chaotic aura subtly guided it.
• Jiang Lu realized the powers believed the Children of Fortune might restore their fortune without outside help, allowing the Ascension Passage to open.
• Le Ziyan warned Jiang Lu that the powers had not revealed whether they considered her a Child of Fortune or the chaotic aura, and that someone might attack her if they believed she was the latter.

Jiang Lu learned that Cen Aotian had broken with his family after humiliating his betrothed, then returned with a powerful legacy and a woman at his side. She planned to enter the Softcore Garden before heading to the Ling Shuo Domain to seize the opportunities along his path, and asked Shen Meier how the Cen Family had reacted.

• Le Ziyan acknowledged Jiang Lu’s secret intervention and told her she could still enter the dangerous Softcore Garden with Shen Meier.
• Shen Meier explained that the Softcore Garden was filled with poisonous creatures and miasma, and offered to help Jiang Lu prepare for the trial.
• Shen Meier told Jiang Lu that Cen Aotian had rejected Wen Xin, insulted both families, and broken with his lineage after years stuck at Qi Refinement.
• Shen Meier recounted rumors that Cen Aotian had rescued a wounded expert, received his legacy, and returned at Foundation Establishment with a powerful woman beside him.
• Jiang Lu resolved to travel to the Ling Shuo Domain and take Cen Aotian’s opportunities for herself, then asked Shen Meier about the Cen Family’s attitude.

Jiang Lu entered the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground’s secret realm to train, unaware of its dangers and unable to bring a map. She carefully crossed a hazardous vine passage and neared its exit as the vines began to stir.

• Shen Meier told Jiang Lu that Cen Aotian planned to attend a secret realm trial in the Ling Shuo Domain, and Jiang Lu decided to go there after training.
• Shen Meier brought Jiang Lu to the secret realm’s entrance but refused to accompany her or provide a map.
• Jiang Lu entered the secret realm and found a narrow passage lined with sharp vines and strange black spheres.
• Jiang Lu’s spiritual barrier was cut by the vines, but she chose not to attack them and instead reinforced her protection as she advanced.
• Shen Meier told other disciples that the first stage forbade fighting and trusted Jiang Lu to endure it.
• Jiang Lu spotted light at the end of the passage, but the surrounding vines grew restless and began spreading toward the tunnel’s exit.

Jiang Lu battled a cave’s transformed Man-Eating Flowers and vines with help from her Spirit Beasts. After driving the plants back, she hid in a Concealment Formation Disk to recover before continuing through the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground.

• Jiang Lu escaped the cave as its vines transformed into Man-Eating Flowers, but the plants pursued and surrounded her.
• Jiang Lu fought off the vines and a Man-Eating Flower that detached itself and lunged at her.
• Jiang Lu released Cangchen, Chi Li, and Mingyue, whose attacks helped her cut down most of the vines and force the rest back into the cave.
• Jiang Lu hid with the Spirit Beasts inside a Concealment Formation Disk to replenish her spiritual energy before moving on.

Jiang Lu and her spirit beasts entered a patch of Sawtooth Spirit-Devouring Grass and fought off its relentless, venomous swarm. As their spiritual power began to run low, Jiang Lu decided to end the battle quickly and began preparing a stronger attack.

• Jiang Lu followed a worn path into an area of richer spiritual energy with Lingxi and warned that greater opportunity meant greater danger.
• Sawtooth Spirit-Devouring Grass revealed itself and surrounded Jiang Lu with sharp, poisonous blades.
• Chi Li burned through several stems while Cangchen restrained others with water chains, and Mingyue attacked with lightning as Jiang Lu cut down the grass with Qianming.
• The grass repeatedly regrew, forcing Jiang Lu and the spirit beasts to fight an exhausting swarm that drained their spiritual power.
• Jiang Lu leaped above the encroaching grass, raised a protective barrier, and summoned sword shadows and fireballs to launch a decisive attack.

Jiang Lu survived an attack by Spirit-Devouring Grass, treated a poisoned scratch, and discovered a hidden cavern beneath the thicket. Inside, she found a rare stalk of thousand-leaf dewgrass, leaving her with an unexpected opportunity in the Hundred Flowers Secret Realm.

• Jiang Lu, Chi Li, and Mingyue destroyed the attacking Spirit-Devouring Grass with Sword Qi and fire.
• Jiang Lu discovered that stray Sawtooth Grass had scratched her arm and poisoned it, so she took a Detox Pill and expelled the poison.
• Jiang Lu recovered while her spirit beasts guarded the area, and Cutie found a source of pure spiritual energy beneath the soil.
• Jiang Lu and her spirit beasts dug into the soft earth, causing the ground to collapse and drop them into a hidden cavern.
• Jiang Lu illuminated the cavern and found a rare stalk of thousand-leaf dewgrass beside a spirit spring.

Jiang Lu discovered a hidden cave and stored an immature thousand-leaf dewgrass in her space before cultivating in the cave. After following her spirit beasts through a cramped tunnel, she emerged into a chamber filled with immense, translucent roots.

• Lingxi and Cutie found a thousand-leaf dewgrass in the hidden cave, and Jiang Lu carefully transferred it into her space for Lingxi to grow.
• Jiang Lu concealed the cave entrance and cultivated until she had absorbed much of the cave's spiritual energy.
• Jiang Lu noticed that her spirit beasts had gone deeper into the cave and that a strange barrier prevented her Divine Sense from reaching them.
• Jiang Lu followed the spirit beasts' auras through a narrow tunnel they had dug and crawled into a hidden chamber.
• Jiang Lu emerged into a broad chamber filled with a vast network of translucent, pearly roots.

Jiang Lu found the Tree of Life in the underground lair and rescued the four spirit beasts trapped in its roots, but her attack damaged the roots and destabilized the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground’s earth veins. She and Shen Meier discovered a vast spatial rift exposed among the roots as the cavern shook.

• Jiang Lu recognized the roots as belonging to the Tree of Life and saw Cutie, Chi Li, Cangchen, and Mingyue bound and drained by them.
• The roots attacked Jiang Lu, who fought them with her Spirit Sword and Sword Qi before breaking through their barrier.
• Jiang Lu freed the four spirit beasts and put them into her space, provoking the Tree of Life’s violent backlash.
• The damaged roots caused the cavern and the secret realm to shake, and Jiang Lu realized she might have harmed the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground’s earth veins.
• Shen Meier arrived to investigate the turmoil, and she and Jiang Lu spotted a huge pitch-black spatial rift among the roots.

Jiang Lu explained how she reached the Tree of Life and watched Le Ziyan and the elders investigate a mysterious connection in the darkness. Uneasy about a voice calling to her, she asked Shen Meier to take her to visit the Elves and entered their Ancestral Lands.

• Jiang Lu told Le Ziyan that she had fought the Sawtooth Spirit-Devouring Grass, followed dense spiritual energy, and accidentally damaged the Tree of Life.
• Le Ziyan ordered Jiang Lu and Shen Meier to leave while she and the elders investigated the connection to the darkness.
• Jiang Lu heard a beguiling voice calling from the darkness but left with Shen Meier before she could investigate.
• Jiang Lu asked Shen Meier to take her to see the Elves so she could distract herself from the voice.
• Shen Meier brought Jiang Lu through the barrier into the Elves' Ancestral Lands, where Jiang Lu saw the flower-filled woodland.

Jiang Lu and Shen Meier discovered that the elves' Sacred Tree had stopped circulating spiritual power, just like the Tree of Life. As the Elf Queen feared the Sacred Tree would soon wither, it suddenly pulled Jiang Lu inside, leaving everyone uncertain but hopeful that she could help it.

• Jiang Lu and Shen Meier entered the elves' Ancestral Lands, where they met Lüwu.
• Lüwu told Shen Meier that the spiritual power around the elves' Sacred Tree had stopped flowing.
• Shen Meier and Lüwu brought Jiang Lu to the Sacred Tree, where Jiang Lu heard its plea for help.
• The Elf Queen warned that the Sacred Tree's decline could bring disaster to the elves and the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground.
• The Sacred Tree sucked Jiang Lu inside, and the Elf Queen assured Shen Meier that it would not harm her.

Jiang Lu entered the Sacred Tree’s realm and learned that the Tree of Life’s disappearance had weakened it. The Sacred Tree promised her one tenth of its Wood Heart in exchange for investigating the Tree of Life, and Jiang Lu secured the payment before agreeing to help.

• Jiang Lu arrived in the Sacred Tree’s silent space and found that the white fruits dissolved when she touched them.
• Jiang Lu questioned the Sacred Tree, which said it had sensed the Tree of Life’s essence being plundered before its aura vanished.
• The Sacred Tree asked Jiang Lu to investigate the Tree of Life’s condition and offered one tenth of its Wood Heart.
• Jiang Lu bargained for the Wood Heart in advance, arguing that investigating the Tree of Life would be dangerous and uncertain.
• The Sacred Tree agreed and gave Jiang Lu a green Wood Heart bead, which she placed in her Sea of Consciousness.

Jiang Lu followed the Tree of Life’s beckoning voice into a realm of darkness and loneliness, where she discovered the voice belonged to the true Tree of Life. It blamed her for destroying its roots and asked how she felt in its isolated domain.

• The Sacred Tree sent Jiang Lu to the place where she had found the Dry Leaf Dew Grass, and she hid from two cultivators searching for a surge of spiritual energy.
• Jiang Lu approached the Tree of Life but heard a voice calling her from a dark place and learned it could hear her replies.
• The voice claimed to be the Tree of Life and offered to bring Jiang Lu past the cultivators; after divining an auspicious lot, she agreed.
• The voice carried Jiang Lu unnoticed into a cave, where she crossed a vast darkness and saw the glowing true Tree of Life.
• The Tree of Life blamed Jiang Lu for destroying its roots and asked how she felt standing in the darkness.

Jiang Lu discovered that the entity trapping her in the void was not the tree of life but a darkness-born thief stealing its energy. She confronted it and began uncovering how it had tried to reach the world of the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground.

• Jiang Lu heard the entity explain that it had remained in the void for over ten thousand years after the Hundred Blossoms Sacred Ground trapped the tree of life and drained the space of vitality.
• The entity enclosed Jiang Lu in a cage of branches and declared that it wanted to absorb the life essence within her.
• Jiang Lu noticed that the branches were brittle and that the entity appeared unable to leave the void, then shattered one branch to test her suspicion.
• Jiang Lu broke free, accused the entity of being a ghost born from darkness that stole the tree of life’s energy, and said it had failed to replace the real tree.
• Jiang Lu suggested that the entity had found the tree of life and tried to enter its world, but had been unable to do so.

Jiang Lu learned that the spirit haunting the secret realm had tried to possess her so it could escape the ruined Endless Domain, then captured it with the Myriad Souls Banner. The secret realm began collapsing, and Jiang Lu was swept into the chaotic void as she tried to flee.

• Jiang Lu deduced that the spirit had tried to possess her, and it revealed itself as the last surviving being of the destroyed Endless Domain.
• The spirit explained that the Five Great Domains had consumed the Endless Domain’s source energy and that it wanted to escape by taking over the Tree of Life.
• Jiang Lu realized the spirit’s escape could devastate the Tree of Life and the spiritual ecology of the Azure Tide Domain and the wider Immortal Cultivation Realm.
• Linglong advised Jiang Lu to use the Myriad Souls Banner, and Jiang Lu captured the spirit inside it.
• The secret realm began collapsing after the spirit was absorbed, and Jiang Lu flew toward the void passage before being swept into chaotic void power.

Jiang Lu arrived in the Ling Shuo Domain after the Endless Domain collapsed, then traveled to the Illusory Forest to cultivate. She refined the Wood Heart to Great Perfection of the Golden Core and prepared to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.

• Linglong explained that the Divine Soul Banner had absorbed the Endless Domain's final living presence, causing the domain to collapse.
• The Hundred Blossoms Sacred Master found the passage severed and learned from Shen Meier that the elves' Sacred Tree had recovered its vitality.
• The consciousness within the Tree of Life recognized that Jiang Lu had severed the draining connection, while the elves' Sacred Tree sensed her success.
• Shen Meier told Le Ziyan that Jiang Lu had disappeared after accompanying her to the elves' territory, while Jiang Lu sent her own master an update on her travels.
• Jiang Lu identified her arrival point as the Reclusive Lü Clan's territory, avoided visiting them, and flew toward the approaching secret realm trial.
• Jiang Lu refined the Wood Heart in the Illusory Forest until she reached Great Perfection of the Golden Core, then had Chi Li and the other spirit beasts guard her as she prepared for her breakthrough.

Jiang Lu underwent a perilous breakthrough from the fifth layer of the Golden Core to Nascent Soul, enduring the Fifty-Four Heavenly Tribulation as her Nascent Soul of the Way of All Beings took shape. With the fifty-third bolt descending to strike her Nascent Soul, she still faced the final test.

• Jiang Lu began her breakthrough in the Illusory Forest, while Chi Li, Mingyue, Cangchen, and Qiming guarded the formation in four directions.
• Black clouds gathered over the forest, and the Fifty-Four Heavenly Tribulation began as Qianming shielded Jiang Lu from the early lightning bolts.
• Jiang Lu's Nascent Soul formed with visions of beings suffering throughout the world, embodying the Way of All Beings.
• Jiang Lu manifested a towering compassionate figure, causing cultivators gathered nearby to fear her and stay back.
• Qianming withdrew so Jiang Lu could face the final two bolts herself, and the fifty-third bolt descended toward her Nascent Soul.

Jiang Lu survived the Fifty-Four Heavenly Tribulation, formed her Nascent Soul, and received a heavenly Dao blessing. After celebrating with her spirit beasts, she left the Illusory Forest and avoided Cen Aotian, a Foundation Establishment cultivator who wanted her help and company.

• Jiang Lu endured the final golden lightning bolt as her Nascent Soul and Dharma Form drew its power into her dantian, completing her tribulation.
• Golden clouds bestowed a heavenly Dao blessing on Jiang Lu, restoring her spiritual power and establishing her Dao foundation.
• The watching cultivators feared Jiang Lu after witnessing her survive the tribulation and receive the blessing, while her spirit beasts congratulated her on forming her Nascent Soul.
• Jiang Lu prepared to leave with her spirit beasts, and You Meng tested a new ability while sensing someone nearby.
• Cen Aotian introduced himself and offered to protect Jiang Lu, but she recognized him as the male lead of a Long Aotian storyline and refused to travel with him.
• Jiang Lu flew away on her Spirit Boat, leaving Cen Aotian behind.

Jiang Lu traveled toward Sun-Chasing City, where a secret realm trial was due to open, while You Meng revealed that it had planted a nonfatal gu on Cen Aotian. After cultivating near the city, Jiang Lu arrived and learned that Cen Aotian and cultivators from several major clans would enter the secret realm.

• Cen Aotian grew angry after Jiang Lu ignored him, while the old man in his spatial ring urged him to wait for another chance at the secret realm trial.
• You Meng revealed that it had planted a nonfatal gu on Cen Aotian, and Jiang Lu praised it.
• Jiang Lu traveled toward Sun-Chasing City and narrowly avoided a damaged Spirit Boat; the red figure aboard pursued her original route after she detoured.
• Jiang Lu meditated in a mountain hollow near Sun-Chasing City to refine the Wood Heart's energy before continuing toward spirit transformation.
• Jiang Lu took a Breath-Concealing Pill and overheard cultivators discussing the secret realm, the major clans, and Cen Aotian's possible status as a child of fortune.
• Jiang Lu reached the outskirts of Sun-Chasing City, where markets and villages surrounded the city walls.

Jiang Lu prepared for the secret realm, entered it, and tracked Cen Aotian through a snowy stone forest. As Cen Aotian reached a valley, a fourth-tier Flame-Armored Beast appeared, and he launched an attack.

• Jiang Lu bought talismans, magical artifacts, and supplies in Sun-Chasing City, then refined pills while Cen Aotian searched for her and consulted Mo Lao.
• The great clans opened the secret realm, and Jiang Lu entered with the rogue cultivators.
• Jiang Lu used You Meng to locate Cen Aotian and followed him through the snowy stone forest.
• Jiang Lu and her spirit beasts watched from a tree as a fourth-tier Flame-Armored Beast charged out of a pile of rocks.
• Cen Aotian drew his sword and attacked the Flame-Armored Beast.