Chapter Summaries

Chen Fan used his own blood to treat Ye Wan's poisoned younger sister, leaving himself near death, while Ye Wan helped him recover. Her sister survived the poison but remained unable to speak, leaving Ye Wan worried.

• Ye Wan brought Chen Fan to her valley, where he promised the villagers he could cure her younger sister.
• Chen Fan recognized the poison as Spirit-Mystifying Incense and, finding the girl too weak to take medicine, cut his wrist and fed her his blood.
• Chen Fan fainted from blood loss after his blood revived the girl, and Ye Wan used her Internal Qi to purge the remaining poison.
• Ye Wan held Chen Fan and transferred vital essence to him until he regained consciousness, and he learned that her sister was out of danger.
• Chen Fan recuperated in Ye Wan's Household while her awakened sister remained unable to speak, making Ye Wan increasingly worried.

Chen Fan helped Ye Yun recover her memories and begin cultivating, then revealed his unusual past and constitution to Ye Wan. As Chen Fan and Ye Wan prepared to return to their sect, Ye Wan discovered that his cultivation had regressed to the Second Realm, but he remained determined to rebuild it and protect her.

• Ye Yun woke without her memories, and Chen Fan explained that Spirit-Mystifying Incense had caused the lingering effect.
• Chen Fan used the energy in his blood and taught Ye Yun the Golden Wheel Scripture, helping her start cultivating and recover her memories.
• Ye Wan asked about Chen Fan's blood, and he told her he had once been poisoned by Spirit-Drunken Incense before sharing his origins and cultivation secrets.
• Ye Wan noticed Chen Fan's cultivation had fallen to the Second Realm and urged him to seek help, but he chose to guide Ye Yun for several more days.
• After Ye Yun recovered, she begged to learn from Chen Fan, who left her cultivation incantations before departing with Ye Wan.

Ye Wan and Chen Fan returned to Swordcry Mountain, where they parted so she could report the child abductions and he could recover his cultivation. As Chen Fan prepared to reforge his sword, Qin Ziyan found him, learned his cultivation had regressed, and urged him to seek help from her master.

• Ye Wan used her authority to get Chen Fan past the mountain guards after his disciple token was lost, and the two returned to Swordcry Mountain together.
• Ye Wan and Chen Fan discussed her breakthrough to the fifth level before separating at the main gate so she could report to the elders and he could return to the outer court.
• Chen Fan reunited with Eastern Evil and Western Poison, whose new abilities let Little West shrink into a belt and Little East transform into a Snake Staff.
• Chen Fan arranged an appointment at the Sword-forging Room and prepared materials to reforge his broken sword.
• Qin Ziyan visited Chen Fan, teased him about flirting with female disciples, then sensed his cultivation regression and insisted on taking him to her master for help.

Chen Fan accompanied Qin Ziyan to the Sword-forging Room, where Hu Lanqiao reforged his blade into a sword he named Soul Reaper. Qin Ziyan then took Chen Fan to sneak into Swordcry Mountain's Main Peak, but they found its usual guards missing and grew suspicious.

• Qin Ziyan noticed the scar on Chen Fan's wrist, then took him to the Sword-forging Room at his request.
• Hu Lanqiao forged Chen Fan's materials into a reinforced sword with Wind-Veined Jade embedded in its blade.
• Chen Fan named his new sword Soul Reaper and told Qin Ziyan he would draw it only when someone had to die.
• Qin Ziyan led Chen Fan toward Swordcry Mountain's Main Peak, and they sneaked inside after dark.
• Qin Ziyan realized the guards she had arranged to let her in were all missing, and she stopped to look at Chen Fan.

Chen Fan and Qin Ziyan discovered masked intruders raiding the Hundred Herbs Garden with poisonous incense, and Chen Fan let their lone survivor escape after forcing him to abandon the stolen herbs. When sect members arrived, Chen Fan found Wan'er among them, while the poisoned Qin Ziyan collapsed into his arms.

• Chen Fan and Qin Ziyan followed eight masked men toward the Hundred Herbs Garden and found its guards incapacitated.
• Chen Fan recognized the poisonous gas as likely Spirit-Drunken Incense and warned Qin Ziyan to hold her breath and avoid circulating her cultivation.
• They discovered seven of the intruders had collapsed, while the last man carried stolen medicinal herbs and prepared to leave.
• Chen Fan threatened the survivor with a Venomheart Dart, then let him go after he left the herbs behind.
• Sect experts arrived, Chen Fan saw Wan'er among them, and Qin Ziyan fainted into his arms.

Chen Fan tried to conceal his and Qin Ziyan’s involvement in the Hundred Herbs Garden incident while sect elders investigated the poisoned garden. After the elders left, Qin Ziyan revealed she had been awake and teased Chen Fan and Ye Wan about their closeness, leaving Chen Fan caught between them.

• Chen Fan told the Third Elder that he and Qin Ziyan had pursued a black-clad intruder to Hundred Herbs Garden, and Ye Wan warned the elders that the garden might contain poisonous gas.
• The three men sent into the garden found two dead guards and seven dead intruders, then collapsed after Spirit-Drunken Incense poisoned them.
• Chen Fan implied that the fallen men might survive, and the Third Elder took them away while Ye Wan stayed with Qin Ziyan.
• Qin Ziyan woke up, revealed that she had heard Chen Fan and Ye Wan talking, and teased them about their relationship.
• Qin Ziyan confronted Chen Fan about his resistance to poison and vowed to protect him, while Ye Wan reacted jealously to Chen Fan calling her Ziyan.

Chen Fan escaped Ye Wan and Qin Ziyan’s confrontation by pretending to faint, then returned to his room with the stolen plants. Meanwhile, Swordcry Mountain’s Deputy Sect Master Liu Wushuang convened a council to investigate the attack and its possible connection to the missing children, and Qin Ziyan was called on to report what she had seen.

• Ye Wan and Qin Ziyan nearly fought over Chen Fan, but Chen Fan pretended to faint and Ye Wan slipped away after checking on him.
• Qin Ziyan confirmed Chen Fan was unharmed, agreed not to report him, and made him promise to take her to Black Dragon Pool.
• Chen Fan returned to his room with the plants from Hundred Herbs Garden and began studying them against the Treasure Record.
• Liu Wushuang presided over a council at Cloudsea Pavilion and questioned whether the Hundred Herbs Garden attack was connected to the disappearances of children.
• Ye Wan told the council about the Heaven and Earth Gate and Spirit-Drunken Incense, offering an explanation that concealed Chen Fan’s involvement.
• Liu Wushuang asked Qin Jian whether his granddaughter Qin Ziyan had learned anything at Hundred Herbs Garden.

Qin Ziyan and Ye Wan defended Chen Fan when Liu Wushuang questioned his presence at the main peak, easing suspicion that he was a spy. After the others left, Liu Wushuang privately confronted Ye Wan about her relationship and accepted her certainty, while warning that her rival in love was formidable.

• Qin Ziyan recounted entering the Hundred Herbs Garden, finding two unconscious disciples, and escaping after seeing someone flee.
• Liu Wushuang questioned why Chen Fan had gone to the main peak, and Qin Jian suggested he might be a spy.
• Ye Wan and Qin Ziyan defended Chen Fan, explaining his past rescue of them and why he had accompanied Qin Ziyan.
• Liu Wushuang dismissed the group’s reports and asked Ye Wan to remain behind.
• Liu Wushuang asked whether Ye Wan was certain about her beloved, and Ye Wan firmly said she was.
• Liu Wushuang let Ye Wan leave but remarked that her rival in love was no easy opponent.

Chen Fan discovered that his poison-fueled cultivation no longer advanced, so he turned to practicing swordsmanship and encountered a powerful woman who broke the Soul Reaper Sword’s scabbard. She brought him to Cloudsea Pavilion and revealed that she had come after hearing about him from the inner court.

• Chen Fan fed some poorly made poison pellets to Eastern Evil and Western Poison, then found that consuming weaker poison no longer boosted his cultivation.
• Chen Fan decided to focus on External Force and went to the empty martial arts grounds to practice swordsmanship alone.
• A dignified woman challenged Chen Fan, mocked his sheathed sword, and shattered its scabbard with her Sword Qi.
• Chen Fan started to leave, but the woman stopped him and carried him through the air to Cloudsea Pavilion.
• The woman said she had heard about Chen Fan from the inner court and had come to see him, then noted that he had once reached the third level.

Chen Fan learned that Wushuang belonged to both Black Dragon Pool and Swordcry Mountain, received her scabbard, and descended from the mountain. Swordheart Hall disciples arrested him as a suspected spy, but Palace Master Liu Ruyu questioned whether their evidence proved anything.

• Wushuang examined Chen Fan's Venomheart Dart, told him not to reveal it, and said she was from Black Dragon Pool as well as Swordcry Mountain.
• Wushuang gave Chen Fan her scabbard and told him her name before he left the mountain.
• Swordheart Hall patrols spotted Chen Fan in the inner courtyard, arrested him, and brought him to the hall.
• Chen Fan saw Ye Wan among the assembled disciples while the Third Elder accused him of being a spy.
• Liu Ruyu challenged the Third Elder, pointing out that Chen Fan's presence in a forbidden area did not prove he was a spy.

Chen Fan escaped the Third Elder’s accusation after the Fire Spirit Sword scabbard revealed that Vice Sect Master Wushuang had given it to him. After more than half a year of cultivation, he accepted a difficult sect mission to investigate missing children and stolen treasures, hoping to track down the man in black.

• The Third Elder accused Chen Fan of being a spy, but Bai Shuang’s search uncovered Wushuang’s scabbard and shocked the elders into abandoning the accusation.
• Liu Ruyu dismissed the gathering and sent Ye Wan to escort Chen Fan back to the outer court; Chen Fan told her Wushuang had given him the scabbard, and Ye Wan explained the sect’s investigation into spies.
• Chen Fan spent more than half a year cultivating with poison, while Eastern Evil and Western Poison grew stronger and gained more useful abilities.
• Chen Fan visited the outer court mission hall and rejected the ordinary assignments in favor of difficult missions concerning missing children and stolen treasures.
• The steward gave Chen Fan the special missions, warning him that inner court disciples were already involved and that he would need one of them to acknowledge his assistance to claim a reward.

Chen Fan investigated the West Ridge prince’s mysterious disappearances and discovered that Spirit-Mystifying Incense had been used to incapacitate the guards. He followed the prince into the royal palace and watched him enter the Treasure Pavilion, waiting to learn what he was searching for.

• Chen Fan accepted the mission to investigate the West Ridge prince and traveled to West Ridge City.
• Chen Fan met Steward Chu, learned how the prince vanished from his guarded residence, and went there after nightfall.
• Chen Fan sensed Spirit-Mystifying Incense and saw the prince leave while the guards collapsed.
• Chen Fan checked the guards, identified the incense, and followed the prince through the city to a secluded palace wall.
• The prince evaded palace patrols and entered the Treasure Pavilion, while Chen Fan waited outside to see what he would seek.

Chen Fan exposed Prince Chen Tianyun’s deception and learned he had been helping Heaven and Earth Gate obtain treasures. By impersonating the prince, Chen Fan lured out the black-clothed man and discovered that stolen materials and kidnapped children were being gathered for a powerful figure’s cultivation.

• Chen Fan followed Chen Tianyun to a meeting with a black-clothed man and saw the prince hand over an object in a square container.
• Chen Fan confronted Chen Tianyun, exposed his use of Spirit-Mystifying Incense, and sent him back to his residence after the prince collapsed.
• Chen Fan disguised himself as Chen Tianyun and waited at the meeting place, where the black-clothed man appeared seeking another piece of Vermilion Blood Sand.
• Chen Fan struck the black-clothed man with Little West’s venom and forced him to reveal that he was a deputy leader of the Falcon Gang, which served Heaven and Earth Gate.
• The black-clothed man told Chen Fan that kidnapped children and stolen treasures were intended to support a high-ranking figure’s cultivation, and that Chen Tianyun had been used to steal palace treasures before being promised a false offer of discipleship.

Chen Fan followed a dying black-clad man’s clues to a mountain cave, where a mysterious figure had just departed after a secret operation. He encountered Myriad Blossom Valley disciples Hua Yuewu and Yang Dawei, and the three began comparing what they knew about the missing children.

• Chen Fan questioned the poisoned black-clad man, learned that a mysterious cultivator had practiced in a cave west of West Ridge City, and killed him when he launched a desperate attack.
• A hooded lord told a burly subordinate that the operation had succeeded thanks to Vermilion Blood Sand, then left the cave and ordered the cleanup.
• Chen Fan reached the mountain and encountered Hua Yuewu and Yang Dawei, who attacked after mistaking him for an accomplice.
• Chen Fan activated the Golden Wheel Scripture, causing Yang Dawei’s Seven-Colored Phoenix Butterflies to retreat into his gourd, then blocked Hua Yuewu’s poisonous mist with his Snake Staff.
• Hua Yuewu identified herself and Yang Dawei as disciples of Myriad Blossom Valley investigating missing children, and explained that they had tracked black-clad men using pollen and the butterflies.
• Chen Fan and the pair exchanged information, but he withheld what he had learned about the Heaven and Earth Gate expert and the mysterious cultivator.

Chen Fan and the two Myriad Blossom Valley disciples found six slain black-clad cultivators near the mountain before a powerful white-robed man appeared and ordered Chen Fan to accompany him uphill. The man taught Chen Fan a Soaring Art on the spot, and Chen Fan began climbing through the air as the story left the others watching below.

• Chen Fan followed Little West through the weeds and discovered six black-clad corpses with their faces destroyed.
• Yang Dawei and Hua Yuewu examined the bodies, and Chen Fan warned that the killer might be above them on the mountain.
• A silver-haired man in white appeared, suppressed the three cultivators, then released them and told Chen Fan to come uphill with him.
• The man allowed Yang Dawei and Hua Yuewu to wait below and taught Chen Fan the incantations for a Soaring Art.
• Chen Fan used the new technique to step through the air and climb the mountain while the white-robed man moved ahead.

Chen Fan and Yun Zhongjun confronted a black-clad Heaven and Earth Gate fighter in a cave, where Spirit-Drunken Incense left all three incapacitated. Chen Fan recovered first and approached the defeated man, who recognized his resistance to the poison and asked what connection he had to the Poison Immortal.

• Chen Fan followed Yun Zhongjun into the hidden cave and found a black-clad masked man waiting in a chamber.
• Yun Zhongjun attacked the man, who countered with dual blades and revealed that Spirit-Drunken Incense was weakening their Origin Qi.
• Chen Fan lost consciousness as Yun Zhongjun and the black-clad man fought amid the incense.
• Chen Fan awoke to find Yun Zhongjun unconscious and the black-clad man apparently defeated, then crawled toward him intending to kill him.
• The black-clad man woke in terror and asked how Chen Fan could still be conscious, then demanded to know his relationship with the Poison Immortal.

Chen Fan killed the black-clad man and helped Yun Zhongjun recover enough to leave the mountain, while the mystery of Chen Fan’s resistance to Spirit-Drunken Incense deepened. They reached Swordcry Mountain after curfew, where the guards discovered Yun Zhongjun and reacted with shock.

• The black-clad man died after marveling at Chen Fan’s strange resistance to Spirit-Drunken Incense, and Chen Fan worried that Yun Zhongjun might be in grave danger.
• Chen Fan circulated his Origin Qi through Yun Zhongjun to help him recover, then cultivated until Yun Zhongjun woke with only fragmentary memories.
• Yun Zhongjun recognized the Fire Spirit Sword and asked Chen Fan to carry him to a cliff, where he used sword flight to descend the mountain with him.
• Chen Fan carried Yun Zhongjun toward Swordcry Mountain, leaving the cave undisturbed for the two people from Myriad Blossom Valley to find.
• At the closed mountain gate, Chen Fan explained himself to the guards, but another disciple found Yun Zhongjun nearby and the old guard rushed over in alarm.

Chen Fan fought off Bai Shuang, who accused him of harming Yun Zhongjun and tried to kill him for his sword, until Wu Xu and Soaring Heavens Palace disciples intervened. Wu Xu escorted Chen Fan back to the sect and learned that Senior Yun had taught him the Soaring Art.

• Bai Shuang accused Chen Fan of harming Yun Zhongjun and attacked him, while the other disciples stood aside.
• Chen Fan blocked Bai Shuang's first strike with his sheathed sword and escaped his next attack using the Soaring Art.
• Bai Shuang tried to seize Chen Fan's sword and attacked again, but Wu Xu arrived with Soaring Heavens Palace disciples and stopped him.
• Bai Shuang left after the surrounding Swordheart Hall disciples ignored his call for support, and Wu Xu escorted Chen Fan toward the sect.
• Wu Xu asked Chen Fan where he had learned the Soaring Art, and Chen Fan said Senior Yun had taught it to him.

Chen Fan returned safely to the sect, survived a dangerous surge in cultivation by bleeding himself, and discovered that losing blood permanently reduced his realm. Liu Wushuang then visited him, questioned him about his trip, resolved the trouble with fellow disciples, and asked him to help her with something.

• Wu Xu escorted Chen Fan safely back to his outer-sect residence after the trip down the mountain.
• Chen Fan's cultivation surged toward the third level until his body began to swell, so he cut his wrist to relieve the excess energy and later returned to the peak of the second level.
• Chen Fan realized that depleting his blood and qi irreversibly lowered his cultivation, and he suspected Eastern Evil and Western Poison had drunk his spilled blood.
• Liu Wushuang arrived at Chen Fan's room and ordered him to recount everything that had happened during his trip down the mountain.
• Liu Wushuang alluded to drunken sleeps, told Chen Fan she had handled the trouble caused by fellow disciples, and asked him to help her with a task.

Chen Fan prepared for Liu Wushuang’s order to visit Black Dragon Pool and asked Ye Wan to help bring Qin Ziyan along. Ye Wan agreed and confronted Qin Ziyan at Sword-Imperial Pavilion, where Qin Ziyan restrained her anger upon seeing her.

• Liu Wushuang ordered Chen Fan to go to Black Dragon Pool and gave him a black token, telling him to bring the materials from Hundred Herbs Garden.
• Chen Fan recovered, strengthened his two snakes with his blood, and turned most of his remaining materials into pills, poisons, and other preparations.
• Chen Fan learned that Ye Wan had returned and that Xiaoyun had recovered, then asked Ye Wan to help him find Qin Ziyan for the Black Dragon Pool trip.
• Ye Wan agreed to help and went to Sword-Imperial Pavilion, where she called Qin Ziyan out in front of the gathered disciples.
• Qin Ziyan came out ready to vent her anger but held back when she saw Ye Wan.