Chapter Summaries

The Great Xia Dao Soldiers attacked the Eternal Life Martial Sect with the Sea-Covering Blackwater Formation, but Li Meng and forty-nine youths blocked their first assault with a mortal iron shield wall. At Su Yueli’s command, the youths opened the barricade and charged the distracted imperial soldiers.

• Two hundred Great Xia Dao Soldiers landed outside the Eternal Life Martial Sect and launched the Sea-Covering Blackwater Formation at its gates.
• Li Meng led fifty youths in a Blood-Locking Formation Wall that stopped the Dao Soldiers’ Blade Gang without anyone being injured.
• Chu Kuang ordered the Dao Soldiers to use Blazing Fire Talismans and armor-piercing wind blades against the shield wall.
• Su Yueli ordered the youths to lower their shields and close in as the Dao Soldiers formed their attacks.
• Li Meng ordered the youths to break the wall, draw their hammers, and charge the Dao Soldiers.

Li Meng and fifty Martial Sect youths slaughtered two hundred Great Xia Dao Soldiers in a narrow alley, using close combat to overcome their spells and spiritual defenses. After Han Yu killed the Dao Soldiers’ captain, Xiahou Lie opened his eyes with murderous intent.

• Li Meng charged through the Dao Soldiers’ formation and killed its front-line soldier with his warhammer, as the Martial Sect youths forced their way into close quarters.
• A Dao Soldier squad leader severed one youth’s arm, but the youth and others killed him with a headbutt and hidden blades.
• The Dao Soldiers’ formation collapsed as the Martial Sect youths battered them in the cramped alley, preventing them from using their spells or gaining distance.
• Han Yu launched herself into the air and split the Fifth Realm captain in two with her black iron greatsword.
• After half an hour, all two hundred Dao Soldiers were dead; seven Martial Sect youths had died and twelve were gravely wounded.
• Deputy General Chu Kuang watched in fury from the main warship, and Xiahou Lie opened his eyes with towering murderous intent.

Lu Chang'an and Han Yu fought together to kill Chu Kuang, but a far greater power descended from the Scarlet Scale Warships before the Martial Sect disciples could recover. The chapter ended with the battlefield frozen beneath an overwhelming force.

• Chu Kuang attacked the survivors while Xiahou Lie activated the Nine Heavens Wind and Lightning Grand Array, unleashing deadly wind and lightning across the Western Ward.
• Lu Chang'an hurled himself into Chu Kuang's blade to deflect it and create an opening for Han Yu, suffering devastating injuries.
• Han Yu shattered Chu Kuang's Black Tortoise Golden Bell Talisman and wounded him, then fought him in close combat as her strength began to fail.
• Lu Chang'an struck Chu Kuang from behind, giving Han Yu the opening to drive her greatsword through his jaw and destroy his Primordial Spirit.
• A voice from the Scarlet Scale Warships called the fighters ants, and an immense power descended, freezing heaven and earth.

Xiahou Lie manifested his Late Eighth Realm Dharma Avatar and crushed the Eternal Life Martial Sect’s survivors beneath overwhelming pressure, declaring that the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty would brook no mortal martial warriors. As his golden palm descended to destroy them, Su Yueli emerged and promised Han Yu she would shatter the sky.

• Xiahou Lie appeared in the sky with his Mystic Heaven Demon-Subduing True Scripture Dharma Avatar, whose might pinned Li Meng, Han Yu, Lu Chang'an, and the other survivors beneath the pressure of heaven and earth.
• Xiahou Lie dismissed Chu Kuang’s death and declared that mortals without Spirit Roots were born to serve the immortal sects and that the world had no need for martial warriors.
• Xiahou Lie sent the Dharma Avatar’s golden palm crashing toward the Eternal Life Martial Sect, threatening to crush the disciples and their ruined courtyard.
• Han Yu resisted the pressure and shouted defiance at the heavens as the disciples faced death without begging for mercy.
• Su Yueli walked out from behind the shattered gate, comforted Han Yu, and said she would shatter the sky for her disciple.

Su Yueli revealed overwhelming physical strength by destroying Xiahou Lie’s Eighth Realm Dharma Avatar and killing him. She then declared that Azure Cloud City would honor martial might above all and challenged the city to object.

• Xiahou Lie ordered his Golden Body Dharma Avatar to crush Su Yueli, who stepped into the void and shattered it with a single punch.
• Su Yueli destroyed the Dharma Avatar and its imperial Dao dragons, leaving Xiahou Lie gravely injured.
• Xiahou Lie tried to flee, but Su Yueli caught him and crushed his heart, killing him and extinguishing his Dao.
• Han Yu, Lu Chang'an, Li Meng, and the Martial Sect disciples looked on with reverence as Su Yueli confronted Azure Cloud City.
• Su Yueli declared that the immortal dynasty and mortal world in Azure Cloud City would honor martial might above all, then asked who agreed and who objected.

Su Yueli defeated the Great Xia forces and took control of their warships, while the Inner City’s cultivators panicked and tried to flee. She left Azure Cloud City under the Eternal Life Martial Sect’s rule and ordered its leaders to surrender the city’s records and resources.

• Su Yueli killed Xiahou Lie and ordered the surviving Dragon Scale Dao Soldiers to surrender their weapons, armor, and warships.
• Han Yu secured the three warships for the Eternal Life Martial Sect and sent the surrendered soldiers into their holds.
• The Inner City’s leaders and cultivators panicked and tried to escape, but Lu Chang'an destroyed a flying shuttle and enforced a three-day lockdown.
• Li Daoyuan surrendered the city seal, formation disk, and records to Su Yueli, who ordered the city’s ledgers, maps, and spirit medicine field deeds delivered before sunset.
• Su Yueli declared that the Eternal Life Martial Sect would decide Azure Cloud City’s rules from then on.

Gu Qinghe took control of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion Azure Cloud Branch and redirected its stores and spirit medicine fields toward the Eternal Life Martial Sect’s needs. As Su Yueli watched the city at night, the Martial Sect’s mortal forces had replaced the old cultivator-led order across Azure Cloud City.

• Gu Qinghe arrived at the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion Azure Cloud Branch with twenty disciples and presented Su Yueli’s order confiscating its supplies.
• Zhao Xun handed Gu Qinghe the storehouse keys and ledger, and Gu Qinghe inspected the branch’s four-hundred-mu spirit medicine field.
• Gu Qinghe ordered the branch to replace cultivation herbs with ingredients for the Blood-Locking Great Medicine, move Demon Beast Blood Essence to the Martial Sect, and reforge pills into ointment for wounded disciples.
• Su Yueli watched Martial Sect patrols and mortal defenses replace the city’s spiritual formations, sensing the earth’s vitality awaken beneath the people’s Qi and Blood.

Su Yueli established the Eternal Life Martial Law in Azure Cloud City, imposing equal protections for mortals and cultivators and placing city resources under the Martial Sect. Li Meng then ordered a forceful seizure of the Zhao and Sun households’ quarry operations, leaving the clans facing destruction if they resisted.

• Su Yueli erected a stele announcing the Eternal Life Martial Law, including severe penalties for harming mortals, abolishing poll and entry taxes, restricting low-level flight, and placing mineral veins and spirit fields under Martial Sect administration.
• A brocade-robed cultivation elder condemned the new laws, and a Martial Sect patrolman struck him unconscious with his scabbard.
• Li Meng took control of the renamed Martial Governance Bureau and heard that the Zhao and Sun households had withheld quarry contracts.
• Li Meng ordered ten guards to take fifty second realm disciples to the Zhao and Sun residences, sparing their clans if they surrendered but destroying them if they resisted.

Azure Cloud City welcomed thousands of mortal refugees and built the Eternal Life Martial Sect into a growing force, giving people rejected by the immortal sects food, work, and a path to martial strength. As Su Yueli watched the city fortify itself, she recognized that her actions had left a lasting mark on the Immortal Dynasty.

• Li Meng and Martial Sect disciples fed and registered thousands of starving refugees outside Azure Cloud City's open gates.
• More than fifty thousand mortals arrived in Azure Cloud City within a month, and they reclaimed farmland, reopened mines, and worked in the smithies.
• The Eternal Life Martial Sect expanded its training ground and grew from fifty disciples to more than eight hundred.
• Han Yu urged the young disciples to train through hardship and swear loyalty to the Martial Sect.
• Su Yueli watched the disciples train and considered how the city was turning resources once held by cultivators into food and weapons for mortals.

Great Xia officials learned that Xiahou Lie and his forces had been defeated by the Eternal Life Martial Sect, then watched a recording of a white-robed woman kill him with a single punch. The Ancestral Dragon Demon-Subduing Ancient Bell rang, and Old Ancestor Jiang emerged from seclusion.

• Prince Kang asked whether Xiahou Lie had truly fallen, and the Minister of War reported that Azure Cloud City had surrendered to the Eternal Life Martial Sect and Great Xia's forces had been destroyed.
• A young prince rejected the report and accused the rebels of using a forbidden artifact, so the Minister of War showed the officials a battle recording.
• The recording showed a white-robed woman shattering Xiahou Lie's Dharma Avatar and killing him with one punch.
• The Great Xia Ancestral Dragon Demon-Subduing Ancient Bell rang, and Old Ancestor Jiang appeared above the hall.
• The princes and ministers prostrated themselves and welcomed Old Ancestor Jiang out of seclusion.

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.