Chapter Summaries

Long Xuan met Long Dan in Xuanyuan City and learned that the Long Family planned to invade the Central Region, but he chose to stay away until the war was over. After studying the tournament intelligence, he spotted Wu Gang’s Black Tortoise bloodline and decided to infiltrate the competition to obtain his vital blood; as the tournament began, Long Xuan disguised himself as Wu Gang’s first-round opponent.

• Long Dan told Long Xuan that the Long Family planned to march into the Central Region, while Long Xuan said he would not return until the family had won territory there.
• Long Xuan asked Long Dan for intelligence on the Western Region Genius Tournament and found that Wu Gang possessed a Black Tortoise bloodline that could help him cultivate a Dharma Form.
• Long Xuan decided to enter the arena in disguise and take Wu Gang’s vital blood, despite insisting that he would not officially participate in the tournament.
• Three days later, the Genius Tournament began in Xuanyuan City, drawing competitors, Gu Kings, and other powers to watch and recruit talent.
• After an ordinary-looking competitor complained that he had drawn Wu Gang, Long Xuan knocked him unconscious, tied him up, hid him under the bed, and left disguised as him.

Long Xuan’s Flame Clone defeated Wu Gang to obtain Black Tortoise blood essence, which Long Xuan used to cultivate his third manifestation. After finishing the Formation Inscriptions on Di Xin’s bones, Long Xuan began creating a new technique, the Shape Mimicry Art, to turn his manifestations into attacks.

• Long Xuan arrived at Arena No. 1 disguised as Zhou Bao and instantly defeated Wu Gang with a Steel Finger strike after Wu Gang let him attack three times.
• The Flame Clone joined the Martial Gate to escape the crowd, while Long Dan realized that Zhou Bao was one of Long Xuan’s clones and Zhang Renshan vowed to challenge him.
• The Flame Clone brought Wu Gang’s Black Tortoise blood essence to Long Xuan, who sent the clone away to cultivate the blood while he continued carving Formation Inscriptions into Di Xin’s bones.
• A month later, Long Xuan completed the inscriptions, and Di Xin entered seclusion to learn to control her new skeleton.
• The Flame Clone completed Long Xuan’s third manifestation, the Black Tortoise, and Long Xuan entered the Soul Library to create the Shape Mimicry Art, a technique that would use manifestations to attack.

Di Xin’s Bone-Tempering Art triggered a terrifying heavenly phenomenon, drawing four tournament-ranked geniuses who tried to seize the forbidden art. Long Xuan defeated them and fled with Di Xin when he learned a Gu King was approaching, while the four survivors agreed to keep their humiliation secret.

• Di Xin’s cultivation caused a heavenly phenomenon, and Long Xuan prepared to protect the cave from approaching Gu cultivators.
• Mu Qing, Bai Mo, Zhu Hang, and Huo Lin arrived aboard an azure flying boat and demanded the forbidden art, but Long Xuan refused to let them pass.
• Zhu Hang attacked Long Xuan, who struck Bai Mo down with one punch before fighting all four geniuses at once.
• Long Xuan unleashed twenty golden dragons, grievously injuring the four and forcing them to flee.
• After Di Xin warned him that a Gu King was approaching, Long Xuan carried her away from the cave before the elderly Gu King arrived and examined the battle site.
• Mu Qing, Bai Mo, Huo Lin, and Zhu Hang regrouped and agreed to keep their defeat secret.

Long Xuan and Di Xin went to a Gu King trade fair in Xuanyuan City to sell the location of the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum. There, they discovered that the host was Qian Changjiang, a treasure merchant whose wealth had made his Three-Legged Golden Toad one of the Gu World’s ten strongest experts.

• Long Xuan and Di Xin agreed to sell the mausoleum’s location at a Gu King trade fair.
• Long Xuan and Di Xin disguised themselves and entered a crowded trade fair pavilion.
• Long Xuan recognized the host’s Three-Legged Golden Toad and realized the trade fair was run by a Qian Clan treasure merchant.
• Di Xin identified the host as Qian Changjiang, the Qian Clan’s strongest expert, and explained that his wealth had empowered his Three-Legged Golden Toad to reach the Gu World’s top ten.

Long Xuan traded the Heaven-Imprisoning Staff to Qian Changjiang for Triple-Origin Heavy Water at the trade fair. He then took the stage and offered to sell the location of an unexcavated ancient tomb in the Xuanyuan Empire.

• Qian Changjiang opened the trade fair by banning fraud and murder, then exchanged a Two-Hundred-Year Longevity Elixir for an elderly Gu King's fortune.
• Long Xuan waited for a chance to trade and offered Qian Changjiang the Heaven-Imprisoning Staff for his Triple-Origin Heavy Water.
• Qian Changjiang accepted the deal, and the two secretly transferred the treasures through their storage rings.
• Qian Changjiang left the stage, and Long Xuan announced that he was auctioning information about a perilous ancient tomb in the Xuanyuan Empire.

Long Xuan auctioned the location of an ancient tomb and secretly sold it to the heads of Xuanyuan City's eight great clans, tricking them into hiding their purchases from the crowd. After the trade fair, he stored the dangerous Triple-Origin Heavy Water for later and let the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad absorb its Treasure Aura.

• Long Xuan offered the ancient tomb's hidden location for sale, and Qian Changjiang used his Integrity Gu to confirm the information was true.
• Long Xuan secretly agreed to sell the location to the heads of Xuanyuan City's eight great clans, advising each to pretend the deal had failed and trade with him later.
• Long Xuan refused most other bidders, while the eight clan heads feigned disappointment and the crowd wrongly suspected Qian Changjiang had bought the location.
• Long Xuan returned to Di Xin, who learned he had sold the location to the eight clans and called him vicious.
• After the trade fair, Long Xuan stored the Triple-Origin Heavy Water in the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad because he was not strong enough to devour it.
• The Heaven-Swallowing World Toad absorbed the Triple-Origin Heavy Water's Treasure Aura, causing its size and internal space to swell.

The Xuanyuan Imperial House learned that the ancient tomb was the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum and plotted to seize its treasures by killing everyone inside. After the tomb attracted a huge crowd and its outer formations were broken, Long Xuan and Di Xin entered, aiming for the Heavenly Spirit Tree while Di Xin hinted at an even more valuable treasure.

• The heads of Xuanyuan City's eight great Lineages discovered that the tomb lay beneath their pavilion, began excavating it, and worried that the Xuanyuan Imperial House would claim its treasures.
• The Xuanyuan Emperor ordered Xuan Yuan Zhi to secretly kill Zhang Renshan and capture Qin Mingyue, then planned to slaughter the tomb's visitors and take the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum's treasures.
• Crowds of Gu cultivators converged on the tomb, forcing the eight great Lineages to share the excavation, and the factions broke the outer formations after a month of losses.
• Long Xuan and Di Xin set out for the tomb's central area after learning that many formations and mechanisms remained intact.
• Di Xin told Long Xuan that they were targeting the Heavenly Spirit Tree rather than the tomb-suppressing treasure, and refused to reveal what that treasure was.

Di Xin entered the most dangerous tunnel to break the ancient tomb’s final formation, while Xuan Yuan Zhi arrived with an army and trapped the tomb raiders in the Xuanyuan Grand Formation. As the royal forces slaughtered the weakened crowd, Long Xuan abandoned his escape attempt to save Qin Mingyue and helped her kill Xuan Yuan Yin.

• Di Xin entered the abandoned, most dangerous tomb tunnel to break the final formation, and Long Xuan waited for her above ground.
• Xuan Yuan Zhi arrived at the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum with more than ten thousand Gu Masters and declared that the royal family would take every treasure.
• Xuan Yuan Zhi activated the Xuanyuan Grand Formation, trapped the tomb raiders, and ordered his imperial guards to kill everyone inside.
• Xuan Yuan Zhi revealed that the tomb belonged to the Cangyue Emperor and fought the eight clan heads, while Long Xuan searched in vain for a way out.
• Long Xuan chose to save Qin Mingyue rather than flee, and struck Xuan Yuan Yin with enough force to shatter his arm.
• Qin Mingyue used the opening to attack Xuan Yuan Yin, while Long Xuan slowed him with Little White, allowing her Crescent Gu to sever his neck.

Long Xuan fused Heavenly Flame and Heavenly Water into a devastating attack to escape Xuan Yuan Zhi, but the explosion left him gravely injured and trapped inside the Xuanyuan Grand Formation. With the barrier still standing and his escape talisman spent, he fled into the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum, followed by Qin Mingyue and the surviving Gu cultivators.

• Xuan Yuan Zhi sent a clone after Long Xuan, who used Little White’s domains to slow the pursuer while fleeing.
• Long Xuan risked fusing Heavenly Flame and Heavenly Water, creating the unstable purple energy ball he named Twisted Jade.
• Long Xuan hurled and detonated Twisted Jade, killing Xuan Yuan Zhi’s clone and devastating the forces inside the Xuanyuan Grand Formation, while his Hundred-Li Talisman failed to teleport him through the distorted space.
• Long Xuan survived the blast but found the barrier intact, then chose to enter a remaining tomb-robbing tunnel; Qin Mingyue followed him.
• The surviving Gu cultivators realized the core-area barrier had been opened and entered the tunnels to escape the Xuanyuan forces.

Long Xuan escaped the Xuanyuan Imperial House’s pursuit and used earth escape to reach the Heavenly Spirit Tree, where he found a Dark River full of dangerous crocodiles guarding its fruits. He sent his Flame Clone disguised as a crocodile into the river, and it passed the crocodiles without raising suspicion.

• Xuan Yuan Zhi refused to pursue the fleeing Gu cultivators and ordered his battered forces to guard the tomb tunnels and wait for them to emerge.
• Long Xuan used Book Gu’s earth escape to evade the pursuing Gu Kings and travel directly toward a location showing infinite progress.
• Long Xuan found the Heavenly Spirit Tree and discovered that fourth-rank crocodile spirit beasts guarded it from the Dark River.
• Long Xuan decided to use Seventy-Two Transformations on his Flame Clone so it could approach the tree disguised as a crocodile.
• Di Xin arrived and questioned Long Xuan about the plan, then watched as his disguised Flame Clone entered the river without attracting the crocodiles’ attention.

Long Xuan and Di Xin crossed a burial passage filled with invisible moving spatial rifts, which Long Xuan could see using his golden finger. As Gu Kings pursued them for Long Xuan’s forbidden technique, the pair discovered an Ink Metal vein, and Long Xuan summoned the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad to try to swallow it.

• Long Xuan collected every fruit from the Heavenly Spirit Tree with his Flame Clone and continued toward a location marked with infinite progress alongside Di Xin.
• A puppet sent into the burial passage was sliced apart by invisible spatial rifts, but Long Xuan saw the rifts with his golden finger and used another puppet to guide them safely through.
• Gu cultivators from the major Lineages arrived behind them, and Lan Yan vowed to pursue Long Xuan and seize his forbidden technique, using Spiritual Sea Stage cultivators as scouts through the deadly passage.
• Long Xuan and Di Xin found an Ink Metal vein in the tomb, and Long Xuan released the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad to attempt to swallow it for later mining.

Long Xuan had the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad devour the Black Gold Vein, then chose to hide inside it and recover from his injuries while pursuing Gu Kings approached. Di Xin concealed herself nearby as the group passed them and continued deeper into the tomb, unknowingly leaving Long Xuan behind them.

• The Heaven-Swallowing World Toad swallowed the Black Gold Vein and added another Treasure Aura-producing island to its internal space.
• Long Xuan told Di Xin that the Xuanyuan Imperial House had sent experts after the tomb raiders and that fusing Heavenly Flame with Heavenly Water had left him badly injured.
• Di Xin warned that Gu Kings had passed through the spatial-rift passage and that the road ahead was too dangerous to continue.
• Long Xuan entered the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad, which shrank and hid, while Di Xin concealed herself with Formation Disks.
• Lan Yan and the other Gu Kings found the hole in the wall, assumed the person who made it had gone ahead, and hurried onward without discovering Long Xuan.

After recovering from Twisted Jade, Long Xuan and Di Xin reached the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum’s sleeping chamber and negotiated a share of its treasures with the injured Lan Yan. They discovered the tomb’s Reincarnation Ancient Tree, but Long Xuan backed away from its coffin when he read a warning against tomb raiders, leaving Lan Yan ready to open it.

• Long Xuan recovered after a month, then followed Di Xin through the tomb, where the corpses and wrecked mechanisms showed that most dangers and treasures had already been cleared away.
• Long Xuan and Di Xin disguised themselves as Peak Gu Kings and arrived just after Lan Yan had cleared the sleeping chamber’s mechanisms, leaving him badly injured.
• Long Xuan pressured Lan Yan into agreeing to divide the coffin’s treasures and the Reincarnation Ancient Tree’s twelve fruits among them; Di Xin agreed that Long Xuan should take the tree and six fruits.
• Long Xuan recognized the tree as the Reincarnation Ancient Tree, one of the Ten Divine Trees, and wondered whether Di Xin was connected to it.
• Long Xuan stopped when he read the coffin’s curse warning and retreated, while Lan Yan dismissed it as a bluff and prepared to open the coffin.

Long Xuan, Lan Yan, and Di Xin opened a coffin in the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum and awakened the grave robber Zang Tianyu, who used the Cursed Eye to kill Lan Yan and exterminate the Lan and Xuanyuan clans. Di Xin identified Zang Tianyu and explained that his curse had limited uses, forcing him to flee while Long Xuan and Di Xin survived.

• Lan Yan opened the coffin, and the soul inside cursed the grave robbers for disturbing his tomb.
• Di Xin identified the soul as a powerful grave robber rather than the Cangyue Great Emperor, while Lan Yan and Long Xuan mocked him and Long Xuan gave the false name Xuan Yuan Zhi.
• Zang Tianyu used the Cursed Eye to kill Lan Yan and curse-killed people surnamed Lan and Xuanyuan across the Central Province and beyond.
• Di Xin recognized Zang Tianyu as the former owner of the Cursed Eye and revealed that his curse had a limited number of uses.
• Zang Tianyu abandoned the coffin and fled, and Di Xin admitted she had only pretended not to fear him.

Long Xuan and Di Xin fled the burial chamber with the Reincarnation Ancient Tree and Lan Yan’s storage ring as the Jiang Clan Head and Han Clan Head pursued them. A lost mechanism transported Long Xuan and Di Xin to an unknown world, leaving them trapped with no way back.

• Long Xuan had the Heaven-Swallowing World Toad swallow the Reincarnation Ancient Tree and fled with Di Xin into a dangerous tomb passage as Gu Kings approached.
• The Jiang Clan Head and Han Clan Head led the pursuers into the burial chamber, found it empty, and chased after Long Xuan and Di Xin.
• The Han Clan Head recognized the destroyed mechanism as one that transported victims to an unknown world and destroyed the passage behind them.
• Long Xuan realized that Zang Tianyu’s actions had sent him and Di Xin to an unfamiliar, pitch-black world.

After Long Xuan and Di Xin were stranded on a deserted island, he planned to use the time to cultivate and develop a Heaven Spirit Pill. Qin Mingyue also arrived, and Long Xuan completed the pill formula but kept it secret so he could continue obtaining herbs from Di Xin.

• Long Xuan reassured Di Xin that he could escape with his Boundary-Breaking Gu, but decided to remain hidden on the island until he reached Gu King.
• Long Xuan persuaded Di Xin to sponsor herbs for his Heaven Spirit Pill experiments, then began secluded cultivation while his five clones gathered spiritual energy.
• Long Xuan summoned a Thatch Gu to build a villa, and two days later found Qin Mingyue occupying its master bedroom after she had been teleported to the island.
• Di Xin explained that Qin Mingyue had been pursued for her Heavenly Fragrance Physique and had triggered one of the tomb's mechanisms while fleeing.
• In less than a month, Long Xuan completed the Heaven Spirit Pill formula, then hid it and planned to delay telling Di Xin so he could keep asking her for herbs.

Long Xuan learned about the powerful Music-Path Gu Insects Qin Gu and Curse Seal Gu from Qin Mingyue, then decided to pursue his own Seven-Tone Scale Gu Insects. He left convinced that adding two notes to the incomplete five-note system could create an even stronger Music Path.

• Long Xuan heard Qin Mingyue playing a Five-String Qin and realized the world's musical scale lacked two notes, inspiring him to create Seven-Tone Scale Gu Insects.
• Qin Mingyue explained Qin Gu's abilities and demonstrated its sound blade by slicing a distant boulder in half.
• Long Xuan rejected refining Qin Gu because playing music in battle did not suit his preferred fighting style, and asked Qin Mingyue about other powerful Music-Path Gu Insects.
• Qin Mingyue described Curse Seal Gu and activated her five living curse seals, raising her power by an entire realm.
• Long Xuan became eager to refine Curse Seal Gu and reasoned that a seven-note system could produce seven seals and surpass Qin Mingyue's five-seal power.

Long Xuan traded a Heaven Spirit Fruit with Qin Mingyue for the Curse Seal Gu Recipe and materials, then began preparing a seven-note version of the Gu. He used his newly invented Seven-String Zither and seven classic scores to attract Qin Mingyue’s attention, and she was left convinced he had transformed the Music Path.

• Long Xuan traded Qin Mingyue a Heaven Spirit Fruit for the Curse Seal Gu Recipe and three sets of materials, and promised to give her a Heaven Spirit Pill once he developed it.
• Long Xuan studied the recipe and decided to add two notes, but realized he needed someone skilled at playing the required qin music.
• Long Xuan wrote seven qin scores, invented names for the two missing notes, and crafted a Seven-String Zither.
• Long Xuan played "Song of the Proud Wanderer," and Qin Mingyue realized the piece used seven notes and that the world’s musical system might be incomplete.
• Qin Mingyue rushed into the villa and questioned Long Xuan about the Seven-String Zither and the scores.
• Long Xuan falsely claimed he had created the seven-note system and all seven classic pieces, and Qin Mingyue eagerly began studying the scores.

Long Xuan completed a Seven-Tone version of the Curse Seal Gu Recipe and went to see Qin Mingyue, who had mastered the Seven-String Zither. He witnessed her Qin Gu use “Ambush on All Sides” to summon a deadly battlefield, revealing the power the new Music Path could bring.

• Qin Mingyue played “Eight Sounds of the Heavenly Dragon” on the Seven-String Zither while Di Xin recognized that Long Xuan had created a new path and asked what he was planning.
• Qin Mingyue offered to practice the seven war-themed pieces and play them to help Long Xuan refine a seven-seal Curse Seal Gu.
• After a month, Long Xuan finished researching the Seven-Tone Curse Seal Gu Recipe and went to find Qin Mingyue.
• Long Xuan saw that Qin Mingyue’s Qin Gu had gained two strings and manifested a battlefield while she played “Ambush on All Sides.”
• The summoned army charged Long Xuan, then vanished when Qin Mingyue stopped playing; she explained that the classic piece had raised the Qin Gu’s potential.

Long Xuan and Qin Mingyue refined a new seven-piece set of Curse Seal Gu, and Long Xuan’s Flame Clone implanted all seven at once, greatly increasing Long Xuan’s combat power. Qin Mingyue gave Long Xuan the benefits of dual cultivation to help them approach the Gu King bottleneck, and she discovered that his five types of Mutated Spiritual Power were far stronger than her own.

• Long Xuan worked with Qin Mingyue to refine seven new Curse Seal Gu, succeeding after a month of playing her seven zither pieces.
• Qin Mingyue said she wanted to implant all seven Curse Seal Gu, while Long Xuan challenged her and agreed to implant seven himself.
• Long Xuan summoned Flame Clone to bear the pain, and Flame Clone successfully implanted all seven Curse Seal Gu, returning the gains and control to Long Xuan.
• Long Xuan activated the Curse Seal Gu and gained a surge of power beyond his Spirit Sea Peak cultivation.
• Long Xuan gave Qin Mingyue a Heaven Spirit Pill, and she proposed dual cultivation to help them break through to Gu King.
• Long Xuan and Qin Mingyue began cultivating together, and Qin Mingyue was shocked by the quality and quantity of his five Mutated Spiritual Powers.