Chapter Summaries

After surviving Elder Han’s attack, Su Yueli spent more than forty days hiding and recovering in the secret realm. She ambushed an Azure Cloud Sect disciple and dragged him toward the dangerous depths to question him about her parents and Shen Qing'an, while Elder Han renewed the search.

• Su Yueli awoke with Little Black beside her and realized that Elder Han’s strike had left her gravely injured.
• She hid cautiously for more than forty days, moving often as her body slowly recovered.
• Su Yueli sensed an Azure Cloud Sect disciple nearby and knocked him unconscious before he could send a signal.
• She dragged the captive toward the secret realm’s depths, intending to question him about her parents and Shen Qing'an.
• Elder Han saw the disciple’s life-light flicker on the Tracking Compass and ordered everyone to search for Su Yueli.

Su Yueli tortured an Azure Cloud Sect disciple to learn that Jiang Ran had cheated Shen Qing'an out of money and family treasures decades earlier. After forcing the disciple to unlock four Storage Pouches, she killed him, while Elder Han discovered the death and vowed to hunt her down.

• Su Yueli captured an Azure Cloud Sect disciple in a secluded cave, crippled him, and questioned him about a century-old killing in Daliu Village, but he knew nothing.
• Su Yueli caught the disciple hesitating when she asked about a Fengling City fraud and forced him to reveal that Jiang Ran had cheated a mortal out of silver and heirlooms.
• The disciple said Jiang Ran had an Immortal Bone, had reached the mid Fourth Realm, and possessed protective treasures granted by the First Elder.
• Su Yueli made the disciple remove the seals on four Storage Pouches, then killed him despite promising to let him go.
• Elder Han saw the disciple's natal light go out on the Tracking Compass and swore to kill Su Yueli.

After recovering from her severe injuries in a cave, Su Yueli began studying a True Spirit Dharma Image Jade Fragment to see if she could cultivate a Martial Soul. Meanwhile, Qi Feng searched for her near Black Wind Valley and feared she had gone missing.

• Elder Han ordered the secret realm's deep-region entrance sealed and vowed to kill Su Yueli after she killed the sect's elites.
• Su Yueli hid in a cave, used her last Qi and Blood Pill to treat herself and stabilize Little Black, then spent half a year recovering.
• After healing, Su Yueli took out the True Spirit Dharma Image Jade Fragment and entered seclusion to attempt to comprehend a Martial Soul.
• Qi Feng searched around Black Wind Valley for Su Yueli and worried that a powerful immortal cultivator might have killed her.

After thirty years secluded in a cave, Su Yueli used the True Spirit Dharma Image Jade Fragment to study a supreme divine ability and seek a Martial Soul, growing far stronger despite not completing it. She left the secret realm and was mistaken by passing Rogue Cultivators for an unfathomable senior.

• Su Yueli stained the True Spirit Dharma Image Jade Fragment with her essence blood, awakening it and drawing her consciousness into a strange gray space.
• Su Yueli watched a phantom perform Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation and tried to use its Dao resonance to condense a Martial Soul from her Qi and Blood.
• After more than thirty years, Su Yueli had not completed her Martial Soul, but her Ultimate Dao Qi and Blood and control of Mountain-Shattering Heavenbreaker Force had greatly improved.
• Su Yueli left the cave, cautiously searched the secret realm, and found that the Azure Cloud Sect cultivators had withdrawn.
• Several low-rank Rogue Cultivators mistook Su Yueli for a great senior and bowed to her as she approached the secret realm entrance.

After thirty years of seclusion, Su Yueli returned to Azure Province City to find her old friend Tie Ling'er, only to learn that Tie Ling'er had died ten years earlier. Tie Ling'er's shopkeeper gave Su Yueli a box and directions to her friend's grave, leaving Su Yueli to visit her at last.

• Su Yueli advised the Rogue Cultivators that the secret realm's outskirts were safe, then decided to return to Azure Province City rather than seek Qi Feng.
• On her journey, Su Yueli saw that familiar cultivation cities had changed greatly, and she felt the weight of the thirty years that had passed.
• Su Yueli found Tie Ling'er's liquor house thriving, but its shopkeeper told her Tie Ling'er had died ten years earlier.
• Su Yueli revealed her name, and the shopkeeper explained that Tie Ling'er had left strict instructions to give her a preserved box if Su Yueli ever returned.
• Su Yueli accepted the box containing banknotes and Tie Ling'er's letter, learned where her cenotaph was, and left for the Tie Family Ancestral Grave.

Su Yueli visited the graves of people she had lost, reflecting on her long life and vowing to pursue vengeance against those responsible for their deaths. As she prepared to leave, news of the Great Li Dynasty’s Imperial City Martial Tournament prompted her to realize that sixty years had passed since she last attended.

• Su Yueli visited Tie Ling'er’s grave and left without disturbing the grave after recalling her promise to bring money back.
• Su Yueli visited Shen Qing'an’s grave, vowed to kill Jiang Ran, and left Fengling City.
• Su Yueli returned to the ruined mountain village, paid respects to Lu Chen and the villagers, and vowed to investigate the massacre and settle accounts with the Azure Moon Sect.
• Su Yueli visited her parents’ graves in Daliu Village and reaffirmed her determination to avenge their deaths against the immortal sects of the Great Gan Dynasty.
• Su Yueli overheard martial artists discussing the upcoming Imperial City Martial Tournament and realized it had been sixty years since she last attended.

After sixty-six years of seclusion, Su Yueli traveled to the Great Li Imperial City to see the mortal Martial Artists' Tournament. Meanwhile, Shen Huai'an left the Azure Moon Sect for the same city, determined to win the upcoming Cultivators' Tournament.

• Su Yueli masked her face and traveled to the Imperial City, recalling her old conflict with the Pang Family and wondering what had become of Lin Ye.
• Su Yueli entered the Imperial City and heard martial artists discuss the powerful contestants gathering for the tournament beginning the next day.
• Shen Huai'an emerged from decades of seclusion after reaching the Sixth Realm, and the Azure Moon Sect master ordered him to gain combat experience at the Martial Artists' Tournament before claiming the Cultivators' Tournament championship.
• The Azure Moon Sect master assigned two Ninth Realm elders to protect Shen Huai'an, who set out for the Imperial City.

Su Yueli attended the Martial Dao Tournament and heard how the Pang Family had brought back an immortal cultivator after its humiliating defeat sixty years earlier. As the tournament began, she learned that the Fourth Prince had lost his claim to the throne and been exiled to the war-torn Northern Frontier.

• Su Yueli spotted the Pang Family’s contestants and noticed that their stern middle-aged leader carried spiritual energy she could not assess.
• Jianghu spectators told Su Yueli that an Eighth Realm immortal cultivator had returned to support the Pang Family, which blamed its disgrace sixty years earlier on a black-robed champion who had killed its former head.
• Su Yueli listened as the spectators praised the vanished champion, unaware that the masked woman beside them was the very legend they were discussing.
• A young official opened the tournament by reading the imperial edict, prompting Su Yueli to ask why the Fourth Prince was no longer presiding.
• The spectators said the Fourth Prince had lost the succession struggle, been stripped of his titles and military authority, and exiled to the Northern Frontier, where Great Wei’s invasions had made life dangerous.

Su Yueli revisited the Great Li Martial Dao Tournament and unexpectedly encountered her old friend Lin Ye, now an elderly mortal she could not reveal herself to. As she left, Shen Huai'an and two powerful elders from the Azure Moon Sect arrived, and Shen Huai'an’s presence made Su Yueli’s Ultimate Dao blood and qi surge out of control.

• Su Yueli recalled the Fourth Prince and the passage of sixty years while watching the mortal martial artists compete.
• Su Yueli left the tournament and met the elderly Lin Ye, who spoke of his friendship with the tournament champion from sixty years earlier.
• Su Yueli recognized Lin Ye but concealed her identity, then parted from him at a fork in the road.
• Three Azure Moon Sect cultivators flew over Great Li Imperial City, led by Shen Huai'an.
• Su Yueli recognized Shen Huai'an, and her Ultimate Dao blood and qi boiled out of control.

Su Yueli recognized Shen Huai'an, her old acquaintance and the Azure Moon Sect's Young Sect Master, and decided to stay in the Imperial City to learn what he knew about the village massacre and Lu Chen's death. She met him at an inn while concealing her identity, and he found her unusual manner intriguing.

• Su Yueli heard that Shen Huai'an had arrived in the Imperial City for the Immortal Dao Tournament and resolved to question him about the Azure Moon Sect's connection to the village massacre and Lu Chen's death.
• Shen Huai'an explored the city with two Ninth Realm elders and entered a crowded inn, where he asked Su Yueli to share her table.
• Su Yueli hid her identity behind a mask and altered voice as Shen Huai'an sat down with her.
• Shen Huai'an asked whether Su Yueli had come for the tournament, and she said she was merely bored and mocked the elders accompanying him.
• Shen Huai'an was surprised by Su Yueli's bluntness but grew curious and waved for the elders to withdraw their pressure.

Su Yueli, posing as Qingli, befriended Shen Huai'an and tried to learn about his mortal past, but discovered he seemed to have forgotten his family and dismissed his elder brother as insignificant. After she left, Shen Huai'an’s Ninth Realm bodyguards grew suspicious, and one pursued her.

• Su Yueli introduced herself to Shen Huai'an as Qingli and struck up a conversation while his two Ninth Realm elders watched nearby.
• Su Yueli asked Shen Huai'an about his hometown, and he said he had spent two hundred years cultivating in seclusion without experiencing mortal life.
• Su Yueli asked whether Shen Huai'an’s family and friends were well, and he said he had an elder brother but that mortals were insignificant and his brother was likely dead.
• Su Yueli concealed her alarm, ended the conversation, and left the Spirit Tea Pavilion.
• The two elders suspected Su Yueli had been probing Shen Huai'an’s secret mortal past, so one stayed to guard him while the white-haired elder followed her.

Su Yueli evaded the white-haired elder’s probing questions and returned safely to her inn, convinced that she needed more strength before investigating Shen Huai'an further. She focused on forging her Martial Soul with the True Spirit Dharma Image Jade.

• Su Yueli suspected that Shen Huai'an might be ignorant of his brother Shen Qing'an’s fate, but she remained wary and recognized that she was too weak to confront the Azure Moon Sect.
• The white-haired elder followed Su Yueli and questioned her about her origins and her conversation with Shen Huai'an.
• Su Yueli claimed she was an orphan from a slaughtered escort agency and concealed her true strength, easing most of the elder’s suspicion.
• The white-haired elder reported his findings to the dark-faced elder, and they decided Su Yueli posed no threat; Shen Huai'an and the two elders then left the tavern.
• Su Yueli returned to her inn, resolved to strengthen herself, and began using the True Spirit Dharma Image Jade to forge her Martial Soul.

Su Yueli watched the once-in-a-century Cultivators' Tournament begin in Great Li Imperial City while continuing to seek a path to the Twelfth Realm of Martial Dao. She identified her enemy Jiang Ran among Azure Cloud Sect's disciples and considered how she could kill him without revealing her strength.

• Su Yueli emerged from meditation, found her blood and qi strengthened, and remained unsure how to approach the Twelfth Realm or condense a Martial Soul.
• The secular Martial Dao Tournament ended, and immortal cultivators arrived in Great Li Imperial City as the Cultivators' Tournament began.
• Su Yueli watched Azure Moon Sect's Shen Huai'an arrive with two Ninth Realm escorts and expected him to compete for the championship.
• When Azure Cloud Sect arrived, Su Yueli questioned Rogue Cultivators and learned that Jiang Ran had reached the Early Fifth Realm.
• Su Yueli recognized Jiang Ran as her enemy, suppressed her anger, and judged that she could kill him with a well-timed sneak attack.

Su Yueli analyzed Jiang Ran’s combat weaknesses during the tournament and followed him alone to Boulder Valley, seeing an opportunity to attack him away from the Azure Cloud Sect. She confronted him in the valley, and Jiang Ran dismissed her as a lowly martial artist.

• Shen Huai'an and Jiang Ran easily defeated their opponents in the tournament’s preliminary matches.
• Su Yueli studied Jiang Ran’s fighting habits and defensive treasure, identifying flaws she could exploit.
• Su Yueli heard that Jiang Ran would visit Mirror Lake Immortal Garden alone and decided to strike before he met Shen Huai'an.
• Jiang Ran left the Azure Cloud Sect residence alone at midnight, and Su Yueli silently followed him outside the city.
• Su Yueli blocked Jiang Ran’s path in Boulder Valley, and he mocked her for attempting to rob him without Spiritual Power.

Su Yueli defeated Jiang Ran and tortured him over the death of Shen Qing'an, a mortal he had swindled more than a century earlier. She then demanded to know who had killed her parents in Daliu Village, leaving Jiang Ran in her hands.

• Jiang Ran attacked Su Yueli with a Blazing Fire Curse, but she shattered it with her fist and rushed toward him.
• Jiang Ran raised his Profound Spirit Streamlight Shield, but Su Yueli broke the treasure and struck him down, shattering his limbs.
• Su Yueli reminded Jiang Ran that he had swindled Shen Qing'an outside Fengling City, leading to the merchant's death in the snow.
• Jiang Ran recalled cheating the merchant with fabricated cultivation jade slips but showed no remorse and insulted Su Yueli for seeking vengeance.
• Su Yueli crushed Jiang Ran's remaining bones with Ultimate Dao Dark Force and demanded to know who had killed her parents in Daliu Village.

Su Yueli forced Jiang Ran to remember that the Young Sect Master had killed her parents in Daliu Village, then killed Jiang Ran when Shen Huai'an arrived and refused to intervene. Shen Huai'an recognized the masked martial artist as Qingli, and his unexplained pain at hearing Shen Qing'an's name remained unresolved.

• Su Yueli tortured Jiang Ran until he recalled that the Young Sect Master had killed a married couple in Daliu Village, identifying him as the killer of her parents.
• Su Yueli resolved to avenge her parents and investigate the truth behind her master Lu Chen's death.
• Shen Huai'an arrived at Boulder Valley and was shocked to see Qingli overpowering Jiang Ran with martial arts.
• Jiang Ran begged Shen Huai'an to save him, but Shen Huai'an stayed motionless, unsettled by the name Shen Qing'an.
• Su Yueli crushed Jiang Ran's head beneath her foot while Shen Huai'an watched.

Su Yueli killed the Azure Cloud Sect disciple and confronted Shen Huai'an with the truth that his village had been massacred, not destroyed by plague. She left him questioning the sect elders’ deception and determined to confront the Sect Master after the tournament.

• Su Yueli killed the Azure Cloud Sect disciple while Shen Huai'an chose not to save him.
• Su Yueli asked Shen Huai'an about his brother, but he dismissed his mortal brother’s death as insignificant.
• Shen Huai'an asked about the village, and Su Yueli told him its people had been slaughtered by a martial artist connected to Azure Moon Sect’s upper ranks.
• Su Yueli left after warning Shen Huai'an to ask the Sect Master about the massacre, and he wondered whether she was the green-robed girl from his past.
• Shen Huai'an resolved to return after the Cultivators' Tournament and demand answers from the Sect Master before leaving Boulder Valley.

Su Yueli left the Imperial City for a dangerous borderland secret realm to seek a breakthrough, while Shen Huai'an confronted two Azure Moon Sect elders about the village where he grew up. Their alarm revealed the sect had massacred the village, and news that Jiang Ran had been killed threw them into further shock.

• Su Yueli left the Imperial City and decided to seek a breakthrough in a deadly secret realm near the Great Li–Great Wei border.
• Shen Huai'an returned to his residence troubled by Su Yueli's accusations and asked two Azure Moon Sect elders what had happened to his childhood village.
• The elders claimed a plague had killed everyone, but Shen Huai'an sensed their answer might be false and retreated to his chamber.
• After Shen Huai'an left, the elders admitted the Grand Elder had ordered the village silenced and worried someone had exposed the massacre.
• An Azure Moon Sect spy reported that Jiang Ran had been killed in Boulder Valley, shocking the two elders.

After Su Yueli killed Jiang Ran, an elder from the Azure Cloud Sect failed to find any trace of the killer at Boulder Valley. Su Yueli reached Cold Crow City and entered its underground Dark Baleful Domain to trade her spoils for martial cultivation resources, where a stall owner recognized the Azure Cloud Sect insignias on them.

• The Azure Cloud Sect reported Jiang Ran's brutal death, and its white-haired elder went to investigate while the dark-faced elder stayed to guard the Young Sect Master.
• The white-haired elder found signs of a violent battle at Boulder Valley but no lingering Spiritual Power or clues to the killer, and left empty-handed.
• Su Yueli traveled for five days to Cold Crow City, planning to exchange her Storage Rings for Qi and Blood herbs and body-tempering materials.
• Su Yueli disguised herself and entered the Dark Baleful Domain, then offered five Storage Rings to a pawnshop owner for sale or exchange.
• The stall owner spotted Azure Cloud Sect restrictions and insignias on the rings and asked Su Yueli whether they had belonged to Azure Cloud Sect disciples.

Su Yueli traded five Azure Cloud Sect disciples’ storage rings for a Mountain-Suppressing Blood Pill, then bought intelligence about the Great Li–Great Wei border and the Myriad Bones Wasteland. She learned that the border was growing unstable and that sect prodigies were heading to the secret realm in search of a Twelfth-Realm cultivator’s legacy.

• Su Yueli exchanged the contents of five storage rings for the fat boss’s Mountain-Suppressing Blood Pill, accepting a poor price to avoid attracting the Azure Cloud Sect’s pursuit.
• As Su Yueli left the marketplace, she noticed that dangerous martial artists and immortal cultivators were watching her.
• Su Yueli approached a one-eyed old man’s intelligence stall and paid five hundred Mid-Grade Spirit Stones for border and secret-realm information.
• The old man told Su Yueli that Great Wei was making moves, border clashes and restless demonic beasts were troubling Great Li, and the Myriad Bones Wasteland reportedly held the legacy of a peak Twelfth-Realm cultivator.