Recaps

Jiang Daoxuan recognized the white-robed woman as the ten-thousand-year-old Martial Immortal revered by Great Xia’s founding ancestor and ordered the court to make peace with her. Great Xia withdrew from Azure Cloud Province and placed it under the Eternal Life Martial Sect’s autonomous rule.

• Jiang Daoxuan rebuked Prince Kang for calling the white-robed woman a demonic woman and ordered the ministers to read her lips in the recording.
• The ministers learned that Xiahou Ba had addressed the woman as Senior, and Jiang Daoxuan revealed the founding ancestor’s secret instructions to avoid opposing her.
• Jiang Daoxuan rejected Prince Kang’s suggestion to deploy the State-Protecting Dragon Cauldron, warning that no one in Great Xia could withstand the woman.
• Jiang Daoxuan ordered the court to end hostilities, revoke its warrants against the Eternal Life Martial Sect, and send gifts to Azure Cloud City.
• Jiang Daoxuan gave Azure Cloud Province’s three-thousand-mile territory to the sect’s autonomous rule and threatened to punish anyone who caused trouble there.

Prince Duan Jiang Chengfeng visited Azure Cloud City to deliver the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty’s concessions to Su Yueli, recognizing the Eternal Life Martial Sect’s self-rule and withdrawing imperial forces. Su Yueli rejected the dynasty’s authority over the city and ordered Jiang Chengfeng to warn Jiang Daoxuan not to interfere.

• Jiang Chengfeng arrived outside Azure Cloud City with a peace delegation and entered alone with a close attendant, while his retinue stayed behind.
• Lu Chang'an escorted Jiang Chengfeng through the transformed city to Star-Plucking Tower, where Su Yueli and Han Yu received him.
• Jiang Chengfeng presented the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty’s decree granting Azure Cloud Province to the sect, waiving tribute, recognizing its self-rule, and offering precious gifts.
• Su Yueli told Jiang Chengfeng to leave the gifts and warn Jiang Daoxuan that the dynasty must not interfere with the sect’s rules in the city.
• Jiang Chengfeng accepted Su Yueli’s message, departed with his flying vessel, and left the imperial seals and gifts behind.

Five years after the Great Xia delegation left, Azure Cloud City had become a fortified city governed by mortals and transformed into a center of martial arts. As its people prospered, Su Yueli anchored her ten-thousand-year life to the mortal city, leaving her future bound to its world.

• Azure Cloud City rebuilt its walls and united its Outer and Inner Cities into a black iron fortress beyond the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty's laws.
• Han Yu reached Peak Fifth Realm Great Perfection and sparred with Lu Chang'an, who had reached Peak Fourth Realm Periosteum Great Perfection.
• The Martial Sect grew from fifty young beggars to more than three thousand mortal disciples, while Gu Qinghe successfully refined Tier Five Dragon-Elephant Bone-Tempering Pills.
• Mortals filled Azure Cloud City's streets and lived free from cultivator rule across the surrounding territory.
• Su Yueli resonated with the black iron city, withdrew her power into her body, and made the mortal city a new anchor for her endless life.

Su Yueli addressed the Eternal Life Martial Sect's food shortage by ordering her disciples to capture and raise Bloodfang Wild Boars rather than slaughtering them for immediate food. Lu Chang'an and two hundred disciples set out for Blackwind Ridge while Han Yu and Gu Qinghe began preparing a breeding pen and feed.

• Han Yu and Lu Chang'an told Su Yueli that three thousand disciples were consuming the sect's food stores, which would run out within fifteen days.
• Han Yu proposed raiding cultivation lineages for food, but Su Yueli rejected plunder as an unsustainable way to support the sect.
• Su Yueli ordered Lu Chang'an to take Li Meng and two hundred disciples to Blackwind Ridge and capture at least eighty Bloodfang Wild Boars alive.
• Su Yueli tasked Han Yu with building a beast pen and told Gu Qinghe to develop feed from medicinal dregs and grain products.
• Gu Qinghe planned to use the boars' manure as fertilizer, and Han Yu agreed to his recommendations.
• Lu Chang'an, Li Meng, and two hundred disciples left Azure Cloud City carrying nets, ropes, and wooden clubs to capture the boars.

Lu Chang'an led two hundred disciples to Blackwind Ridge to capture Bloodfang Wild Boars alive, but Zhou Tie’s reckless charge endangered him and the others. After Lu Chang'an subdued the boar king and the disciples secured the herd, he punished Zhou Tie and warned the group to put their comrades’ safety first; they returned to Azure Cloud City with more than eighty live boars.

• Lu Chang'an organized the disciples into teams and ordered them to capture the Bloodfang Wild Boars without killing them.
• Zhou Tie ignored Lin Xiaohe’s warning, charged a wounded boar alone, and was dragged into the herd’s lair, where he was gored by a boar.
• Lin Xiaohe used quicklime and medicinal powder to disrupt the boars and drag Zhou Tie toward shelter, while Li Meng and nearby disciples tried to hold the herd back with nets.
• Lu Chang'an leaped into the hollow, wrestled the third-tier boar king down, and knocked it unconscious with five punches.
• Lu Chang'an ordered Zhou Tie to receive twenty strokes for leaving formation, then gave him wound medicine and warned him that another offense would mean expulsion.
• Li Meng and the disciples bound more than eighty boars, including the boar king, and carried them back to Azure Cloud City.

The Eternal Life Martial Sect built a beast enclosure and Gu Qinghe devised a self-sustaining feed and fertilizer cycle for its Bloodfang Wild Boars. After the sect celebrated with a roast, Zhou Tie reported a severe iron shortage, and Han Yu planned to ask Su Yueli to reopen an abandoned mine.

• Han Yu and Lu Chang'an completed a stone enclosure and brought more than eighty Bloodfang Wild Boars into it, but the beasts rampaged until Gu Qinghe's Hundred-Herb Calming Feed settled them.
• Gu Qinghe explained how medicinal dregs, grain, and night-crossing vine could fatten the boars and how their manure could fertilize the sect's fields.
• Lu Chang'an and Han Yu roasted the boar that had died during transport, while Su Yueli took the honey-glazed ribs and enjoyed seeing the sect thrive.
• Zhou Tie warned Han Yu and Lu Chang'an that the Equipment Hall had run out of refined iron and could not adequately arm the disciples or supply the city-wall crossbows.
• Han Yu decided to ask Su Yueli for permission to reopen the abandoned hematite mine north of the city.

Han Yu led Li Meng and fifty disciples to the abandoned red iron mine, where they discovered a rich deposit of crimson blood iron mother guarded by an Early Fifth Realm Crimson-Armored Pangolin Beast. After failing to break its armor and being injured, Han Yu escaped and returned toward the city, determined to ask her master for advice and learn how to overcome stronger opponents.

• Han Yu led Li Meng and fifty Third Realm disciples into the abandoned mine and found a large deposit of crimson blood iron mother.
• A Crimson-Armored Pangolin Beast emerged and charged the disciples, so Han Yu ordered Li Meng and the others to retreat while she faced it alone.
• Han Yu's greatsword barely marked the beast's scales, and after more than a hundred exchanges its tail struck her hard enough to crack two ribs.
• Han Yu escaped through the narrow mine passage, and the beast returned to guard the ore deposit.
• Han Yu told Li Meng that the mine's narrow passages made a larger group dangerous, then reflected that brute strength alone could not defeat every opponent.