Chapter Summaries

The Shadow Eye cleared the zombie horde on the Earth Path, while Long Xuan used Shui Juanyun to draw more than ten Gu Kings into attacking him over Gravity Mountain. The chapter left Shui Juanyun under siege as Long Xuan departed with his Integrity Gu.

• The girl used the Shadow Eye to pull the zombies into the Shadow Realm, and Zhuge Yuan warned everyone not to step on her shadow.
• Zhuge Yuan urged the crowd to spread out and hunt for treasure after the first trial’s danger had passed.
• Long Xuan realized the Gu Kings had tracked him through markings and stopped to face them with Shui Juanyun.
• Shui Juanyun accidentally drew the Gu Kings’ attention to himself by urging Long Xuan to hand over Gravity Mountain.
• Long Xuan used his Integrity Gu to make the Gu Kings distrust Shui Juanyun’s explanation that Long Xuan’s toad had swallowed the mountain.
• The Gu Kings attacked Shui Juanyun, and Long Xuan left while carrying his Integrity Gu.

After surviving the first stage of the altered River God Secret Realm, Long Xuan returned to the hall and claimed he did not know whether Shui Juanyun had survived. Water Elder assumed Shui Juanyun was dead and prepared to face Shui Wuqing with Long Xuan in the next stage.

• Jiu Kang and Cha Shan discussed how the changed trials had killed many cultivators, while Zhu Jiǔge and Artifact Maniac had saved survivors in their respective passages.
• Long Xuan emerged from Metal Pass after spending days mining metal essence, and the cultivators in the hall turned to look at him.
• Water Elder asked Long Xuan where Shui Juanyun was, and Long Xuan claimed they had fled separately after other Gu Kings targeted Shui Juanyun for Gravity Mountain.
• Long Xuan privately suspected Shui Juanyun might still be alive when the Gu Kings who had attacked him did not come looking for Gravity Mountain.
• Water Elder accepted that Shui Juanyun was likely dead and told Long Xuan to prepare to fight Shui Wuqing in the second stage.

Long Xuan and the other cultivators entered the River God Secret Realm’s second trial, a lush world of spirit herbs and powerful beasts. When Shui Wuqing pursued Long Xuan, Long Xuan used Zhu Jiǔge as a shield, but Shui Wuqing’s Heavenly Water suddenly rebelled and forced him to flee.

• Jiu Kang warned the cultivators that the second trial was filled with spirit herbs guarded by spirit beasts and said they had to keep moving because the secret realm offered no other exit.
• Zhu Jiǔge entered the new teleportation gate first, followed by Artifact Maniac, Long Xuan, and Shui Wuqing, while Water Elder stayed behind to wait for them to weaken each other.
• Long Xuan arrived in a verdant realm rich in spirit herbs and spiritual energy, then noticed Shui Wuqing pursuing him and suspected Water Elder planned to attack after their fight.
• Long Xuan caught up with Zhu Jiǔge and hid behind her as Shui Wuqing attacked, intending to use the chance to kill her without blame.
• Shui Wuqing’s Heavenly Water rebelled just as his attack neared Zhu Jiǔge, interrupting his spiritual energy and forcing him to flee.

Long Xuan arranged for Water Elder to pursue the weakened Shui Wuqing while he followed Zhu Jiǔge, hoping to use her extraordinary luck to survive Heavenly Water and find treasures. They reached a dangerous Medicine Garden, where a strange spirit Ginseng appeared to block Zhu Jiǔge’s path.

• Long Xuan sent Water Elder a message about Shui Wuqing’s weakened state, and Water Elder set out to kill him while an unseen pursuer followed Water Elder.
• Long Xuan’s clone joined Zhu Jiǔge, planning to rely on her luck to prevent Heavenly Water from exploding and to lead him to treasures.
• A day later, Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge found a Medicine Garden filled with rare spirit herbs, and Zhu Jiǔge walked inside without hesitation.
• A human-shaped Ginseng emerged from the earth and stopped Zhu Jiǔge, prompting Long Xuan to suspect it was the garden’s greatest danger.

Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge entered a Medicine Garden after its sentient guardian, Ginseng, was chased away by its tribulation. Long Xuan found another sentient spirit herb and planned to exploit Zhu Jiǔge’s luck to capture it.

• Ginseng warned Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge away from its Medicine Garden, but Zhu Jiǔge’s questions coincided with the arrival of its Life-Forming Lightning tribulation.
• Ginseng fled to draw the Tribulation Clouds away from the garden, and Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge entered to gather spirit herbs.
• Long Xuan used his Eye of Heavenly Secrets and found a tea-drinking spirit herb in the shape of a little girl with twin horn braids.
• Zhu Jiǔge explained that sentient spirit herbs could burrow underground to escape, then told Long Xuan he could keep the herb if he managed to catch it.
• Long Xuan offered to give Zhu Jiǔge one of the herb’s horn braids, intending to enlist her luck and improve his chances of capturing it.

Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge used poisoned Enlightenment Tea to capture the sentient spirit herb, then decided to leave the Medicine Garden before the Red Ginseng could retaliate. They escaped with the herb’s horn braids and the spirit herbs gathered by Long Xuan’s puppets.

• Long Xuan poisoned a cup of Enlightenment Tea with venom from the Calamity Poison Gu and set it out as bait for the tea-loving little girl.
• Zhu Jiǔge questioned the obvious trap, but the little girl smelled the tea and approached it.
• The little girl suspected an ambush and drew the tea into her mouth from afar, but the poison made her collapse asleep.
• Long Xuan put the little girl in the Insect-Rearing Pouch, and the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad swallowed her; he then retrieved her two horn braids and gave them to Zhu Jiǔge.
• Zhu Jiǔge warned that the Red Ginseng was powerful and likely attached to the little girl, so Long Xuan recalled his puppet army and hurried out of the Medicine Garden.

Water Elder killed Shui Wuqing and claimed Twofold Heavy Water, while Gu Kings rushed to loot a mysterious Medicine Garden and awakened its furious guardian. The chapter left Ginseng attacking the looters as Water Elder planned to become the strongest in the Western Region.

• Jiu Kang, He Jiong, and the other Gu Kings discovered a Medicine Garden full of rare herbs, and Zhuge Yuan warned them that it might be dangerous.
• A Gu King sent zombies into the Medicine Garden, and when they found no apparent danger, the Gu Kings rushed in to loot it while Zhuge Yuan fled.
• Ginseng arrived, found his Medicine Garden plundered, searched for his missing baby, and charged at the humans.
• Water Elder celebrated killing Shui Wuqing and took his storage ring and Twofold Heavy Water.
• Water Elder resolved to subdue Twofold Heavy Water and surpass his former peak as the strongest in the Western Region.

Water Elder discovered that Long Xuan had poisoned his borrowed body and confronted him, while Long Xuan released his Tribulation Gu to kill him. Far away, Long Xuan’s Flame Clone suppressed the unstable Heavenly Water with Zhu Jiǔge’s luck, and Zhu Jiǔge urged him to continue onward.

• Water Elder sealed the Heavenly Water Seed, then discovered his body had suffered irreversible injuries and accused Long Xuan of tampering with it.
• Long Xuan revealed that radioactive substances hidden in his pills had poisoned Water Elder through contact, and refused to give him a body-reshaping pill.
• Water Elder threatened to make Long Xuan lose a clone by activating the hidden measure inside the Heavenly Water, but Long Xuan summoned his Tribulation Gu to attack him.
• Water Elder recognized the Gu Insect that controlled Rebirth Lightning and began forming hand seals as he vowed to make Long Xuan pay.
• Far away, Long Xuan’s Flame Clone collapsed when the Heavenly Water inside him became unstable, then moved closer to Zhu Jiǔge as her fortune helped suppress it.
• Zhu Jiǔge glared at Long Xuan and told him to hurry up and continue onward.

Long Xuan used Zhu Jiǔge’s Yin-Yang Mystic Jade Ginseng essence to help himself swallow Twofold Heavy Water while she refined Supreme Unity Netherwater. As the second trial ended, survivors returned to the great hall and revealed that a powerful spirit Ginseng had wiped out most of their clans’ experts.

• Long Xuan learned that Zhu Jiǔge was Yin-Yang Mystic Jade Ginseng and that her essence could help people swallow Heavenly Water; Zhu Jiǔge used her braids to refine Supreme Unity Netherwater.
• Long Xuan fed Zhu Jiǔge pan-fried tea to distract her, took another tuft of her hair, swallowed the Twofold Heavy Water Seed, and sat beside her to refine it.
• Four days passed as more survivors entered the great hall before the second trial portal closed.
• Cha Shan, Jiu Kang, and He Jiong returned and explained that a wounded spirit Ginseng had pursued them after its tribulation.
• He Jiong said the Ginseng had killed every other member of the He, Jiu, and Cha clans who entered the secret realm, leaving their clans weakened and at risk of losing territory.

Long Xuan completed the Tea Gu Recipe and began refining Tea Gu in his tea garden using a supreme-grade Tea Worm and thirty-six famous teas. The Tea Worm drank until it passed out, and Long Xuan left a clone to continue the process while he departed.

• Long Xuan completed the Tea Gu Recipe using thirty-six famous teas and found the supreme-grade Tea Worm among Shui Wuqing's possessions.
• Long Xuan visited his tea garden, where Tea Tea had been frying and drinking tea, and prepared the ingredients for refining Tea Gu.
• Long Xuan put the supreme-grade Tea Worm into a teapot filled with the thirty-six teas, and it drank until its belly was swollen and it passed out.
• Long Xuan ordered his Water Clone to refill the teapot and keep Tea Tea away from it, then left the garden while the refinement continued.

Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge entered the third trial, a gloomy black forest where the dead became ghosts, and found Shui Wuqing slaughtering his former companions. Shui Wuqing sensed Long Xuan’s Twofold Heavy Water and attacked, but Long Xuan summoned a Gu Insect wielding Tribulation Lightning to confront him.

• Long Xuan emerged from spatial storage and followed Zhu Jiǔge through the portal into the third trial’s sinister black forest.
• Zhu Jiǔge explained that the forest was filled with resentful ghosts made from those who had died in the River God Secret Realm.
• Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge found Jiu Kang, Cha Shan, He Jiong, and other Gu cultivators fighting Shui Wuqing, who had become a Ghost King and was killing his former friends.
• Shui Wuqing sensed Long Xuan’s Twofold Heavy Water, abandoned the other cultivators, and flew toward Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge to seize it.
• Long Xuan sent out a white-lightning Gu Insect, which Jiu Kang and the others recognized as wielding Tribulation Lightning, a bane of ghosts.

Long Xuan used his Tribulation Gu to destroy Shui Wuqing and clear a path through Ghost Pass, allowing most of the trial participants to survive. Three days later, he and Zhu Jiǔge reached the altar of the Other Shore Flower, where a black-robed man suddenly raced up the stairs.

• Long Xuan summoned Tribulation Lightning to strike down Shui Wuqing and trapped his remnant soul in a lightning web until it vanished.
• After the Tribulation Gu returned exhausted to Long Xuan’s Insect-Rearing Pouch, Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge continued through the Black Forest as the surviving ghosts fled from them.
• Jiu Kang, Cha Shan, and Zhuge Yuan marveled at the Tribulation Gu’s power, and Zhuge Yuan urged the others to follow Long Xuan through Ghost Pass.
• Three days later, Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge reached a black altar bearing the Other Shore Flower, and Zhu Jiǔge explained that the altar sealed the abilities of anyone who climbed it.
• A black-robed man raced up the altar stairs toward the Other Shore Flower, and Zhu Jiǔge rushed after him and attacked from behind.

Zhu Jiǔge was gravely wounded by Artifact Maniac on the Black Altar, where Gu abilities were sealed. After Artifact Maniac plucked the Other Shore Flower, he could not choose between resurrecting his master or senior sister, and died without reviving either.

• Artifact Maniac struck Zhu Jiǔge from the altar, leaving her badly injured and in a coma, while Long Xuan tried to save her.
• Jiu Kang warned the gathered Gu Kings not to climb the Black Altar, and the crowd watched Artifact Maniac reach its summit.
• Artifact Maniac plucked the Other Shore Flower, causing the phantoms of his master and senior sister to appear before him.
• Artifact Maniac struggled to choose which of the two to resurrect as Long Xuan and the Gu Kings watched.
• Artifact Maniac's time ran out, and he, his master, and his senior sister all dissipated without anyone being revived.

Long Xuan seized the Other Shore Flower and the Heaven-Imprisoning Staff, then used his physical strength to defeat the Gu Kings on the altar. He left carrying Zhu Jiǔge on his back, while Zhuge Yuan wondered how powerful the youth truly was.

• Long Xuan sensed a living seed in the Other Shore Flower and rushed toward the altar, where abilities were disabled and physical strength ruled.
• Long Xuan reached the altar first and stored both the Other Shore Flower and the Heaven-Imprisoning Staff in his ring.
• Long Xuan beat back the Gu Kings who attacked him, including a fat Gu King wielding a massive hammer.
• Long Xuan kept fighting to injure the Gu Kings before their abilities returned, leaving most of them sprawled across the altar.
• Long Xuan asked who else remained, then left the altar carrying Zhu Jiǔge on his back as Zhuge Yuan watched in awe.

Long Xuan escaped the River God Secret Realm with the gravely injured Zhu Jiǔge and set out to take her to the Sacred Gu Academy for treatment. Meanwhile, Hua An learned they were on the way and decided to kill Zhu Jiǔge himself despite the danger posed by her suspected Misfortune Gu.

• Zhuge Yuan warned the surviving Gu Kings not to pursue Long Xuan, and Cha Shan explained that Long Xuan's lightning-controlling Gu Insect could kill them.
• Long Xuan carried Zhu Jiǔge through the third trial and left the River God Secret Realm, avoiding other treasures to get her treatment quickly.
• After they surfaced in the Prajna River, Zhu Jiǔge told Long Xuan to take her to the Sacred Gu Academy, where her master could heal her Divine Artifact wounds.
• Long Xuan decided to bring Zhu Jiǔge to the Sacred Gu Academy and considered learning its qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting Gu Insect inheritances.
• Half a month later, Hua An's informant reported that Long Xuan was carrying Zhu Jiǔge toward the Sacred Gu Academy.
• Hua An rejected his attendant's warning about Zhu Jiǔge's suspected Misfortune Gu and resolved to attack her personally.

Long Xuan fought Hua An, who revealed that his Painting Gu let him materialize powerful Gu Insects copied from paintings. Long Xuan’s Gu Insects countered Hua An’s forces, and as Hua An’s attacks faltered, the old man urged him to retreat, but Hua An continued fighting.

• Hua An blocked Long Xuan’s path and demanded that he leave Zhu Jiǔge behind, then attacked with the Candle Clan’s Shadow Gu.
• Long Xuan sent Little White, the Blade Gu, the Dragon Gu, and the Calamity Poison Gu to battle Hua An’s Shadow Gu, Blood Moon Mantis, Sky-Escape Centipede, and Heavenly Poison Toad.
• Hua An revealed that his Painting Gu could materialize Gu Insects he had painted, then summoned the Devouring Gu and Strength Heavenly Ox.
• Long Xuan’s Heaven-Swallowing World Toad pinned the Strength Heavenly Ox, while Tribulation Lightning drove the Devouring Gu into retreat.
• Hua An sent ten thousand Vajra Ants against Long Xuan’s Gold-Eating Insects, but most of the Vajra Ants died in the clash.
• The old man aboard the ship warned Hua An that Long Xuan might be the Misfortune Gu’s fatal accident and urged him to retreat, but Hua An refused.

Long Xuan defeated Hua An’s Gu Insects with the newly formed Tea Gu, then used Heavenly Water to destroy the attackers and their support. Hua An’s dying words revealed that Zhu Jiǔge was the host of Misfortune Gu, leaving Long Xuan alarmed as he named the Tea Gu Fairy.

• Hua An used Healing Gu to restore and strengthen his Gu Insects, but a multicolored butterfly emerged from the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad and turned the battle in Long Xuan’s favor.
• Long Xuan realized the butterfly was the newly formed Tea Gu, which healed allied Gu Insects and boosted their speed and strength.
• Blade Gu and Dragon Gu killed Hua An’s Blood Moon Mantis and Sky-Escape Centipede, and Long Xuan used Heavenly Water to destroy the descending white boat and kill the old man and many Painting Clan Gu Masters.
• Long Xuan struck Hua An with a Heavenly Water blade, cutting him in two, and Hua An claimed Zhu Jiǔge was the host of Misfortune Gu whose luck had killed his family and friends before trying to self-destruct.
• Long Xuan blocked Hua An’s explosion, withdrew the Heavenly Water, and named the Tea Gu Fairy before placing it in his Insect-Rearing Pouch.

Long Xuan arrived at Sacred Gu City after defeating Hua An and handed the injured Zhu Jiǔge over to her master, Qi Luoyou. Qi Luoyou recognized Long Xuan as a rare, cautious genius and insisted on playing chess with him to bind his fate to a Board-Game Gu piece.

• Long Xuan collected Hua An's intact storage ring and its treasures, then traveled for half a month to Sacred Gu City.
• Qi Luoyou appeared at the city entrance, identified himself as Zhu Jiǔge's master, and took her from Long Xuan.
• Long Xuan asked whether Zhu Jiǔge could recover, and Qi Luoyou said her injuries could be healed once the Divine Artifact's divine might was removed.
• Qi Luoyou summoned a stone chess table and demanded that Long Xuan play a game with him.
• Qi Luoyou's disciple warned him to observe Long Xuan first, but Qi Luoyou said Long Xuan's strength and cautious nature made him a promising supreme-grade chess piece.

Long Xuan played Qi Luoyou at chess, revealed an unfamiliar and formidable style, and lost after Qi Luoyou adapted. After receiving a top-grade Chess Insect, Long Xuan left to design a stronger Board-Game Gu based on the nineteen-line Go rules of his previous life.

• Qi Luoyou gave Long Xuan a top-grade Chess Insect as repayment for saving Jiǔge and invited him to play chess.
• Long Xuan played black against Qi Luoyou and used unusual moves that forced the older Gu cultivator to take the game seriously.
• A crowd gathered as the match produced Intent, shown by a Black Dragon battling a white tiger above the board.
• Qi Luoyou gradually turned the game around and won, while the final black piece linked its destiny to Long Xuan and shone brilliantly.
• Long Xuan declined to visit Sacred Gu Academy and went to an inn to plan a new Board-Game Gu using his previous life's nineteen-line Go rules.

Long Xuan devised a new Board-Game Gu that could share small portions of the luck and fate of hundreds of geniuses, though refining it would require seventy million materials. While looking for something to sell, he discovered that a parasite he had put in leftover coffee had become Coffee Gu, and he prepared to inspect its abilities.

• Long Xuan revised the Board-Game Gu recipe so it could share luck and fate with up to 361 geniuses, but sacrificed its offensive abilities and faced the challenge of gathering seventy million materials.
• Long Xuan resolved to collect the materials for Board-Game Gu and entered the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad to look for something he could sell.
• Long Xuan found a black-winged Gu Insect sleeping in a cup beside the Coffee Tree and realized it might be Coffee Gu, formed by his experiment with a parasite and leftover coffee.
• Long Xuan imagined buying cheap Coffee Trees, producing Coffee Gu in large numbers, and selling them to fund his Board-Game Gu.
• Long Xuan contracted the Coffee Gu and prepared to examine the abilities of the insect refined from the Heaven-grade Coffee Tree.