Chapter Summaries

Long Xuan tricked Shui Juanyun into bearing the blame for the missing Earth Spirit Fruits, then escaped disguised as a Teng Household Gu Master. Shui Juanyun escaped the encirclement only to see a black-robed old man flee with the fruits after destroying the Earth Spirit Tree and drawing danger onto everyone in the secret chamber.

• Long Xuan let the old men believe Shui Juanyun had taken thirty Earth Spirit Fruits, then claimed Shui Juanyun should hand them over and walked out of the secret chamber.
• Shui Juanyun recognized Long Xuan as the supposed brother who had deceived him and was left to face thirty Marrow Cleansing Peak Gu Masters.
• Shui Juanyun threw his two Earth Spirit Fruits to distract the attackers and escaped through the gap in their encirclement.
• A black-robed old man seized both fruits, killed a companion, and escaped by tearing a talisman.
• The black-robed old man hurled a Heaven-Shaking Thunder at the Earth Spirit Tree, destroying it and shaking the secret chamber as Shui Juanyun realized the commotion would bring danger.

After Shui Juanyun’s escape triggered the destruction of the Teng Household’s Earth Spirit Tree, the Household hunted the fleeing intruders while Shui Juanyun used clones to kill a pursuer and escape into a river. The Teng Household’s Sacred Tree was lost, and Shui Juanyun remained beyond their reach.

• An explosion destroyed the Earth Spirit Tree and alerted the Teng Household, while Long Xuan fled in the opposite direction from the Grand Gu King pursuing another escapee.
• The Teng Household Patriarch ordered his Gu cultivators to kill the fleeing intruders, and his men began pursuing them as the Patriarch killed their leading elder.
• A pale-faced youth chased Shui Juanyun, hoping to obtain an Earth Spirit Fruit for Zhu Jiǔge, while the elder pursuing Zhu Jiǔge stumbled and was killed by the Patriarch.
• Shui Juanyun used seven disguised clones to mislead the Household’s pursuers, but the pale-faced youth followed him and was stabbed by the clones.
• Shui Juanyun took the youth’s storage bag, transformed into water, and flowed into the river before the Teng Household could catch him.

Long Xuan escaped the Teng Household and traveled toward Thunder Marsh to refine the Tribulation Gu and develop new pill formulas. Three months later, he created a Heaven-Defying Pill formula that improved aptitude by two grades and an Earth Spirit Pill formula with an eighty percent chance of reaching the Spiritual Sea Stage.

• The Teng Household Head ordered the captured Long Xuan tortured for a hundred years, then threatened to torment his soul after death.
• Long Xuan escaped far away, changed his appearance, and planned to refine the Tribulation Gu at Thunder Marsh.
• Long Xuan rode inside Da Ming toward Thunder Marsh and worked on pill formulas in a villa on its floating island.
• Three months later, Long Xuan completed the Heaven-Defying Pill formula, which used a Heaven-Mending Fruit to improve aptitude by two grades and summon Tribulation Lightning.
• Long Xuan completed the Earth Spirit Pill formula, which raised the chance of breaking through to the Spiritual Sea Stage to eighty percent.

Long Xuan discovered Arctic Origin Mountain and had the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad swallow it, hoping to gain a second floating island and a source of extreme cold for his cultivation. The mountain appeared in the Void World far from his existing island, leaving him relieved that his spirit herbs would remain safe.

• Long Xuan emerged onto the Divine Dragon Ship’s deck, spotted Arctic Origin Mountain, and decided to have the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad swallow it.
• Leng Yan told Long Xuan she had taken the Cold Jade from the mountain, and he took her box before flying toward the mountain.
• Long Xuan released Da Ming into the sea, where the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad grew larger than Arctic Origin Mountain.
• Da Ming activated its Heaven Devouring ability and swallowed Arctic Origin Mountain while the crew watched in shock.
• Long Xuan sensed the mountain in the Void World about five thousand meters from his floating island and confirmed his spirit herbs were safe.

After reuniting with Di Xin, Long Xuan arranged for her to supply materials for his pill experiments and continued toward Thunder Marsh. He used his understanding of lightning to read the clouds’ progress indicators and safely entered the dangerous marsh, where he began searching for treasure.

• Long Xuan asked Di Xin how she had lost contact with the crew, and she explained that a sea ruin had isolated her from the outside world.
• In private, Di Xin asked whether Long Xuan had obtained the Earth Spirit Fruit, and he agreed to share it only if she paid for the materials needed to create pill formulas.
• Long Xuan planned Medicine Island for spirit herbs and Bee Island for spirit flowers before returning to his journey through the Thatch Gu House.
• Three days later, Long Xuan reached Thunder Marsh and saw lightning constantly striking its dark, swampy landscape.
• Long Xuan’s understanding of lightning revealed progress bars in the clouds, allowing him to avoid the bolts and travel deeper into Thunder Marsh unharmed.
• Long Xuan searched the marsh for treasures but found the harsh lightning made it unlikely that many spirit herbs could survive.

Long Xuan discovered that the empty lake at the center of Thunder Marsh contained Onefold Heavy Water and met Water Elder, a Gu King's soul hiding from the Water Clan. Water Elder revealed that Shui Wuqing framed him for murder and offered Long Xuan the water seed of Onefold Heavy Water in exchange for killing Shui Wuqing or finding him a suitable body.

• Long Xuan crossed Thunder Marsh and found that the lake without any creatures crushed a spiritual herb under immense water pressure.
• Long Xuan recognized the lake as Heavy Water, and Water Elder appeared, explaining that it was Onefold Heavy Water rather than Ninefold Heavy Water.
• Water Elder offered Long Xuan the water seed of Onefold Heavy Water if he killed Shui Wuqing or found a body with both a pure water attribute and the Heavenly Water Physique.
• Long Xuan guessed Water Elder had lost a contest for the Water Clan leadership, but Water Elder angrily explained that Shui Wuqing killed his own father, framed him, and drove him into Thunder Marsh.
• Water Elder vowed to make Shui Wuqing pay for leaving him alive.

Long Xuan persuaded Water Elder to promise him the Onefold Heavy Water in exchange for finding him a body, then began refining the Tribulation Gu and secluded himself to prepare for a breakthrough. He awakened a new floating island from a ripe World Tree fruit and dedicated it to planting rare spirit medicines.

• Long Xuan agreed to find Water Elder a suitable body, and Shui Wuque swore he would give him the Onefold Heavy Water before lightning struck his water-condensed body.
• Long Xuan enclosed a million lightning-attributed Spirit Insects in the Five-Element Reversal Grand Formation to refine the Tribulation Gu, and the Tribulation Worm began devouring the swarm.
• Long Xuan entered secluded cultivation in the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad’s stomach to refine an Earth Spirit Pill and pursue the Spiritual Sea Stage.
• Long Xuan harvested a ripe green World Tree fruit, whose seed became a floating island near Bee Island.
• Long Xuan discovered that Wood Island’s abundant wood spiritual power accelerated spirit-medicine growth and ordered his clones to plant Di Xin’s rare spirit medicines there.

Long Xuan broke through to the Spiritual Sea Stage, strengthening his soul and improving the Soul Library’s time flow, then spent four months deriving the third layer of the Ten Absolutes Scripture. Its creation caused a vast heavenly phenomenon, so he fled into Thunder Marsh before a group of Gu Kings arrived at his cave to investigate.

• Long Xuan refined Earth Spirit Pills, used one to begin his breakthrough, and reached the Spiritual Sea Stage after a month.
• Long Xuan discovered that the Soul Library now made time pass five times slower and began deriving the third layer of the Ten Absolutes Scripture.
• Four months later, the completed cultivation technique summoned immense dark clouds and fierce winds that Gu cultivators mistook for the birth of a top-ranked technique.
• Long Xuan feared the attention the phenomenon would attract and escaped into Thunder Marsh.
• A group of Gu Kings arrived at Long Xuan’s cave too late, and a Peak Gu King woman accused their leader of seeking to assess whether he could steal the technique.

Long Xuan hid in Thunder Marsh and successfully cultivated the five Mutated Spiritual Power types in the third layer of the Ten Absolutes Scripture, then spent years in the Soul Library creating the third layers of two other techniques. After a year had passed outside, he emerged and decided to gather more body-refining and Soul Refining Techniques to improve his future research.

• Demonic cultivators debated whether Long Xuan was still in Thunder Marsh, but none dared enter and they returned to the City of Sin.
• Long Xuan settled in Thunder Marsh, using lightning rods and the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad to conceal and protect his secluded cultivation.
• Long Xuan cultivated Fury-Flame Spiritual Power and then successfully developed all five Mutated Spiritual Power types in the Ten Absolutes Scripture’s third layer.
• Long Xuan shared the technique with his clones and researched the third layers of the Purgatory True Demon Art and the Heavenly Demon Soul-Splitting Divine Art.
• Long Xuan left the Soul Library and discovered that a year had passed outside; he resolved to collect more body-refining and Soul Refining Techniques.

Long Xuan completed the Tribulation Gu and began refining a Heaven-Defying Pill to give it Tribulation Lightning to absorb. When crimson Life-Extinguishing Lightning gathered before the pills had finished forming, he prepared to rely on the untested Tribulation Gu and considered fleeing if it failed.

• Long Xuan found that the Tribulation Worm had transformed into the shapeshifting Tribulation Gu, named it Little Purple, and fed it to the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad.
• Long Xuan took the pill materials outside and joined his five major clones to refine a Heaven-Defying Pill using six Demon-Swallowing Cauldrons.
• After a day of work, Long Xuan and his clones formed three seven-colored pills, but crimson Tribulation Clouds appeared before the pills were complete.
• Long Xuan recognized the clouds as heralding thirty-six bolts of Life-Extinguishing Lightning and took out the Tribulation Gu, warning it to protect him.
• Long Xuan resolved to abandon the pills and the Tribulation Gu and flee if the Gu could not withstand the later lightning bolts.

Long Xuan faced the first strikes of the Life-Extinguishing Lightning, while Tribulation Gu repeatedly intercepted the bolts and knocked them off course. Far away, Water Elder recognized the legendary tribulation and hid in terror, fearing the unknown Gu King who had summoned it might find him.

• Long Xuan's clones and the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad fled from the crimson lightning, while Tribulation Gu stared at it greedily.
• The first bolt of Life-Extinguishing Lightning struck toward Long Xuan's Demon-Swallowing Cauldron, but Tribulation Gu transformed into purple lightning and deflected it.
• Tribulation Gu charged the next bolt and was blasted into the ground again, diverting the lightning into another pit as Long Xuan vowed to withstand the tribulation and refine a heaven-defying spirit pill.
• Water Elder recognized the distant lightning as the tenth-ranked Life-Extinguishing Lightning and feared it could destroy his soul.
• Water Elder assumed a Peak Gu King had summoned the tribulation and might come to Thunder Marsh for the Heavenly Water, so he hid beneath the water and prayed to remain undiscovered.

Long Xuan survived the Heaven-Defying Pills’ tribulation, raised his aptitude, and left Thunder Marsh to seek transformation materials for his Gu Insects. After killing two demonic cultivators, he learned of a Moon Tree auction in the City of Sin and decided to steal the prize through a disguised clone; behind him, treasure seekers rushed into Thunder Marsh just as its lightning returned.

• The Tribulation Gu endured thirty-six bolts of Life-Extinguishing Lightning, allowing Long Xuan to retrieve three Heaven-Defying Pills from the Demon-Swallowing Cauldron.
• Long Xuan let the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad drain the pills’ Treasure Aura, then consumed them and raised his aptitude from rank five to rank three.
• Two demonic cultivators ambushed Long Xuan outside Thunder Marsh, but his Tribulation Gu killed their beetle and struck both men down with Life-Extinguishing Lightning.
• Long Xuan searched Song Qian’s memories, learned that the City of Sin would auction a Moon Tree, and planned to bid through a disguised clone before teleporting away with a Hundred-Li Talisman.
• Long Xuan watched other demonic cultivators enter Thunder Marsh, where lightning resumed and sent them fleeing amid screams.

Long Xuan entered the City of Sin disguised as Song Qian and found ways to turn the shop’s resources into money for his planned bid on the Moon Tree. After discovering the city’s sinister residents, he traded the corpse courtesan Xiangxiang to Master Wei for a Foundation-Consolidating and Essence-Nurturing Pill, leaving both men unaware that he knew their secrets.

• Long Xuan arrived at the City of Sin, watched a guard burn a slain line-cutter’s body, and entered the city with Yue Niang.
• Long Xuan reached Master Song’s Insect Armor Shop, took its materials, and sent his puppets to make armor from his stockpile of Cold Iron.
• Yue Niang delivered Xiangxiang, and Long Xuan recognized from the progress bar in her head that she was a corpse controlled by a Gu Insect.
• Long Xuan visited Master Wei’s Alchemy Shop and spotted an insect hidden inside a Foundation-Consolidating and Essence-Nurturing Pill.
• Long Xuan offered Xiangxiang to Master Wei in exchange for the pill, and Master Wei accepted the deal.

Long Xuan consigned a Heaven-Defying Pill at the Qian Clan Auction House, where its effects and value astonished the appraiser. The pill was assigned as the second-to-last auction item, allowing Long Xuan to use its proceeds to bid for the Moon Tree.

• Long Xuan disguised his Flame Clone and brought a Heaven-Defying Pill to the Qian Clan Auction House for appraisal.
• The gray-haired appraiser used his Golden Eye, suffered a backlash, and recognized the pill as one that had drawn a Heavenly Tribulation.
• The appraiser identified the pill’s effect as raising a Gu cultivator’s aptitude by two grades, even allowing someone with Heavenly-Grade Aptitude to reach Divine-Grade Aptitude.
• The appraiser proposed making the Heaven-Defying Pill the finale item, but Long Xuan insisted it be auctioned second to last so he could bid for the Moon Tree afterward.
• The appraiser agreed and offered Long Xuan a place in VIP Room One, which Long Xuan chose to enter immediately.

Long Xuan learned that the Qian Clan Merchant Association’s Fourth Young Master planned to secretly take the Heaven-Defying Pill, despite the danger posed by the Four Great Villains. As the auction began, Jade-Faced Rakshasa arrived in the City of Sin, and Long Xuan recognized the threat she posed.

• The Fourth Young Master decided to bid for the Heaven-Defying Pill and planned to use his Stealth Gu to steal it after arranging for a fake pill to be taken away.
• The old man warned the Fourth Young Master that at least two of the Four Great Villains were in the City of Sin and would pursue whoever obtained the pill, but the Fourth Young Master refused to reconsider.
• Long Xuan entered VIP Room One and realized the invisible person in the appraisal room could not hide from his distant main body’s Eye of Heavenly Secrets.
• Jade-Faced Rakshasa arrived at the auction house, and the crowd made way for her while discussing her blood-drinking crimes and her search for a cultivation art.

Jade-Faced Rakshasa learned that the Qian Clan Merchant Association had a Heaven-Defying Pill and ordered her sect to prepare to seize it. At the auction, Long Xuan examined a mysterious owner-bound storage pouch offered as a blind box and prepared to duplicate it as bidding climbed to one million Spirit Stones.

• Jade-Faced Rakshasa learned that the Heaven-Defying Pill could raise aptitude by two grades and ordered Rakshasa Sect disciples to ambush the City of Sin and kill whoever obtained it if she lost the auction.
• Jade-Faced Rakshasa noticed that Burial Demon Old Ghost had arrived and worried that he would make the pill harder to obtain.
• Elder Qian opened the auction by offering an owner-bound storage pouch whose contents could be revealed with costly Netherwater, and explained that its seller claimed to have found it by the roadside.
• The Gu cultivators debated the pouch’s unknown owner and contents, with many suspecting it held nothing valuable.
• Long Xuan sensed that the pouch belonged to a Spiritual Sea Stage Gu cultivator and prepared to duplicate the table and pouch with the Origin Realm’s ability.
• Bidding for the storage pouch reached one million Spirit Stones as the bidders began to hesitate.

Long Xuan bought a mysterious storage bag and waited as the auction continued until a Heaven-Defying Pill that could raise Gu Cultivators’ aptitude sparked a fierce bidding war. Burial Demon Old Ghost and Jade-Faced Rakshasa competed for it, but an unseen bidder in VIP Room Two surprised everyone by offering eight billion Spirit Stones, and Long Xuan recognized the bidder’s progress as belonging to the invisible person he had noticed earlier.

• Long Xuan bid one million and ten thousand Spirit Stones for the storage bag after his attempt to replicate it in the Illusion Realm failed, then paid for it and took it to VIP Room One.
• Long Xuan watched the auction, bought useful items including deadly poisons, and saw a young girl sold for seven hundred thousand Spirit Stones.
• Elder Qian presented the Heaven-Defying Pill and announced that it could raise the aptitude of Gu Cultivators below the fifth rank by two grades, prompting Long Xing to consider seizing it by force.
• Burial Demon Old Ghost decided to bid for the Heaven-Defying Pill before the Moon Tree, while Jade-Faced Rakshasa prepared to compete with him.
• Jade-Faced Rakshasa and Burial Demon Old Ghost traded bids and accusations until an aged voice from VIP Room Two offered eight billion Spirit Stones.
• Long Xuan recognized the progress associated with the bidder in VIP Room Two as matching the invisible person he had seen in the appraisal room.

Long Xuan sold the Heaven-Defying Pill for 9.1 billion Spirit Stones and used the proceeds to buy the Moon Tree after the auction crowd rushed off to pursue its buyer. He escaped with a Hundred-Li Talisman, while Jade-Faced Rakshasa abandoned the pursuit to focus on the Heaven-Defying Pill.

• The Fourth Young Master outbid Burial Demon Old Ghost for the Heaven-Defying Pill, and Elder Qian sold it to him for 9.1 billion Spirit Stones.
• Long Xuan received a little over 8.6 billion Spirit Stones from the sale, then noticed that the Moon Tree was dead and considered reviving it with Medicine Gu.
• The Fourth Young Master tried to leave with the pill, prompting Burial Demon Old Ghost and the other Gu cultivators to rush after him; Long Xuan outbid Burial Demon Old Ghost by one Spirit Stone for the Moon Tree.
• Elder Qian delivered the Moon Tree to Long Xuan, who paid nine billion and one Spirit Stone and immediately escaped using a Hundred-Li Talisman.
• Jade-Faced Rakshasa failed to locate Long Xuan, rejected a search for him, and left with the red-clad female Gu King to support the effort to seize the Heaven-Defying Pill.

Long Xuan discovered that the Heaven-Defying Pill had drawn the Gu Kings into deadly fights while his clone escaped unnoticed. Jade-Faced Rakshasa and Burial Demon Old Ghost fought over the real pill, which broke in half; badly injured, Jade-Faced Rakshasa swallowed her half to refine it.

• Long Xuan counted the Gu Kings fighting outside the city and realized Jade-Faced Rakshasa, Burial Demon Old Ghost, and the Qian Clan Fourth Young Master were missing.
• Jade-Faced Rakshasa tracked down the Fourth Young Master, killed him, and took his storage ring containing the real Heaven-Defying Pill.
• Burial Demon Old Ghost arrived and demanded the pill, so he and Jade-Faced Rakshasa fought while their factions battled around them.
• Long Xuan confirmed no Gu King had pursued his clone and left the city to reunite with it as the battles continued.
• The city-gate melee ended after the storage ring was destroyed and the Gu Kings discovered its pill was fake; the Ghost Gate and Rakshasa Sect also suffered heavy losses before the Qian Clan arrived.
• Two days later, Jade-Faced Rakshasa, gravely wounded and missing four fingers, swallowed her half of the shattered Heaven-Defying Pill to refine it.

Long Xuan cultivated spirit medicines, developed Tears of the Moon eye drops, and returned to the City of Sin to sell insect armor while researching a new pill. After a year, a customer brought the Netherwater Long Xuan needed to open a storage bag he had bought at auction, and he found valuable treasures inside.

• Jade-Faced Rakshasa and Burial Demon Old Ghost each concluded that they needed to kill the other to obtain the remaining half of the Heaven-Defying Pill’s medicinal power.
• Long Xuan used the Medicine Gu to establish rare spirit medicines on Wood Island and developed the Tears of the Moon eye drop formula.
• Long Xuan returned to the City of Sin, learned that the real Heaven-Defying Pill had gone missing along with Jade-Faced Rakshasa and Burial Demon Old Ghost, and resumed selling insect armor.
• Long Xuan focused on developing the Myriad Flower Pill while his clone sold armor and gathered materials through limited-edition exchanges.
• After a year, a scar-faced Gu cultivator brought Netherwater to Master Song’s Insect Armor Shop and exchanged it for Insect Armor Number Three.
• Long Xuan used the Netherwater to loosen the seal on his auction-bought storage bag and found valuable items inside.