Chapter Summaries

Long Xuan learned the myth that Gu World was a fragment of the shattered Human Realm and that Peak Gu King was the highest realm attainable there. After watching Long Ziyan battle Long Ruoxue’s Silver Mantis, he decided to seek the Western Land Long Family’s Blade Gu recipe and make Blade Gu his next supreme-grade Gu Insect.

• Long Xuan heard the account of the Divine Court and Heavenly Court’s wars, the shattering of the Human Realm, and the legend that Gu Kings needed to reach the Spirit World to advance beyond Peak Gu King.
• Long Ziyan killed Long Ruoxue’s Earthworker with one sword strike, forcing Long Ruoxue to summon her supreme-grade Silver Mantis.
• Long Ziyan and the Silver Mantis fought with their blade techniques, and the mantis held its own with twin blades fused with Renowned Blades.
• Long Qian explained that the Western Land Long Family’s Blade Gu could learn human blade techniques, had Armor-Piercing abilities, and could become exceptionally powerful with high-grade techniques and blades.
• Long Xuan decided he wanted to refine a Blade Gu as his next supreme-grade Gu Insect if the Western Land Long Family agreed.

Long Xuan and the Far West Long Family’s geniuses reached the Western Land after a three-month journey, and Long Xuan learned about the region’s powerful clans and cheap Spirit Insect resources. Their arrival in Blackstone City was interrupted when they encountered a street melee led by a remarkably powerful black-clothed Gu cultivator.

• Long Qian promised Long Xuan access to the Western Land Long Family’s exclusive Blade Gu recipe and offered to help him choose its primary material.
• Long Ruoxue admitted defeat to Long Ziyan, then warned that Long Dan was the Western Land Long Family’s strongest genius.
• After sharing a meal, the group continued east by Dragon Boat and reached the Western Land three months later.
• Long Qian explained that Blackstone City was jointly controlled by the Western Land’s ten strongest clans, and led the group into the city.
• Long Xuan noticed that Spirit Insect resources were far cheaper in the Western Land and realized that trade between the regions could be highly profitable.
• A melee between black-clothed and white-clothed Marrow Cleansing Stage Gu cultivators blocked the group’s path, while the black-clothed leader fought off more than ten opponents at once.

Long Xuan watched Long Dan, a Long Family genius whose Limit Gu had strengthened his Evil Dragon Emperor Eye, battle Bai Clan cultivators. When the Bai Clan staged a trap to kill Long Dan with a Spirit Sea Peak expert, Long Qian intervened to protect him.

• Long Xuan recognized the black-clad cultivators as members of the Long Family and learned that their leader was Long Dan, whose Limit Gu had brought his Evil Dragon Emperor Eye close to its complete form.
• Long Ziyan identified Long Dan's Innate Gu as the Limit Gu, which could raise an ability beyond its normal limits, and Long Qian clarified that Long Dan's eye still could not counter the world's most powerful abilities.
• Two Bai Clan cultivators who had fallen during the fight suddenly died, and a Bai Clan Spirit Sea Peak expert charged at Long Dan, prompting Long Xuan to suspect the deaths had been staged as a trap.
• Bai Clan cultivators pinned Long Dan down so he could not escape, and Long Qian rushed from the crowd and whipped the attacking elder in the back.

After Bai Qianchou attacked Long Dan, Long Qian and Long Lie subdued him and the City Lord summoned both clans’ leaders to his manor. Long Ruoxue brought the group back to the Long residence and led Long Xuan to choose a Silvermoon Mantis, while Long Ziyan became eager to acquire a Blade Gu of her own.

• Bai Qianchou tried to kill Long Dan, but Long Qian intervened and fought him until Long Lie joined in with a sneak attack.
• Long Qian and Long Lie overpowered Bai Qianchou, and Long Qian slapped him in the face until the City Lord ordered them to come to the City Lord’s Manor with their Household heads.
• Long Qian sent Long Ruoxue and the others back to the Long residence and told her to choose a supreme-grade Silvermoon Mantis for Long Xuan.
• Long Biao pointed out that Long Ziyan had not been offered a supreme-grade Spirit Insect, prompting Long Ruoxue to send her master a letter requesting one for her too.
• Long Ruoxue led the group to the Silvermoon Mantis insect chamber, where Long Xuan saw the mantises practicing blade techniques.

Long Ruoxue explained the Silvermoon Mantises’ grades and the risks of refining Blade Gu, while Long Xuan became fascinated by a ten-bladed mantis and imagined a new saber technique for it. The group began choosing Supreme-grade Silver Moon Mantises, and Long Xuan decided to take the unusual mantis and create the Ten Ultimates Saber.

• Long Ruoxue explained that Silvermoon Mantises were graded by comprehension and that the Supreme-grade ones lived on the second floor.
• Long Ruoxue told Long Ziyan that she could choose one Supreme-grade Silver Moon Mantis and explained how Blade Gu recipes grew stronger but riskier with more materials.
• Long Xuan asked how many kinds of Spirit Insects existed and learned that the number of available species in Western Land limited his ambitions for an enormous Blade Gu recipe.
• Long Ruoxue led the group to choose mantises, and Long Xuan spotted an isolated Silvermoon Mantis born with ten blades.
• Long Xuan chose the ten-bladed mantis in his mind and devised ten forms for a new technique he named the Ten Ultimates Saber.

Long Xuan chose the malformed Ten-Armed Mantis and Long Ziyan won over the Supreme-grade mantises before selecting their king. That night, Long Yuanshan and Long Qian discussed Long Xuan’s identity and planned to keep him in the Lineage with Blade Gu while considering whether he could improve the Dragon Blood Battle Gu Recipe.

• Long Xuan chose the malformed Ten-Armed Mantis, named it Xiaoyue, and stored it in his Insect-Rearing Pouch.
• Long Ziyan drew every Supreme-grade Silver Moon Mantis to her, and Long Ruoxue realized they sensed her Sword Bone.
• Long Ziyan selected the Silver Moon Mantis King, which Long Ruoxue had once failed to win over.
• Long Yuanshan blamed Long Biao for the Silver Moon Mantis King's departure and ordered Long Biao's Genius Arena Tournament slot removed.
• Long Qian identified Long Xuan as the likely genius behind the Gu Recipes and proposed having him refine Blade Gu to keep him in the Lineage.
• Long Yuanshan and Long Qian discussed whether Long Xuan could modify the Dragon Blood Battle Gu Recipe, and Long Qian said no one else could succeed if he could not.

Long Qian visited Long Xuan to recruit him for the Long Family’s effort to replace extinct materials in the Blood Dragon Battle Gu Recipe, offering a huge reward. Long Xuan realized the project could supply the materials he needed for his own Gu and eagerly accepted the opportunity.

• Long Yuanshan decided the Long Family should gamble on modifying the Blood Dragon Battle Gu Recipe and sent Long Qian to ask Long Xuan for help.
• Long Xuan considered how to gather hundreds of thousands of materials for Xiaoyue’s Gu Recipe while examining the little insect.
• Long Qian explained that the Long Family wanted to replace extinct materials in the Blood Dragon Battle Gu Recipe and offered Long Xuan two hundred million contribution points and a Hidden Dragon Tattoo.
• Long Qian described the Blood Dragon Battle Gu’s power and the lost Dragon Transformation Gu, which required one million materials.
• Long Xuan saw that the clan’s research supplies could furnish the materials he needed and decided to take the assignment.

Long Xuan persuaded Long Qian to fund his research into the Dragon Blood Battle Gu Recipe, then struggled to create the Ten Ultimates Saber Technique until he discovered a hidden archive of methods for countering abilities. He left his clones and the Silvermoon Mantis to study the archive, giving him a path toward developing the technique.

• Long Xuan told Long Qian he had a fifty percent chance of completing the Dragon Blood Battle Gu Recipe and demanded to work without supervision, and Long Qian agreed to trust him and provide the materials.
• After Long Qian left, Long Xuan tried to write the Ten Ultimates Saber Technique but realized he lacked the knowledge and experience to create it.
• Long Xuan used the Origin Realm to copy the Scripture Repository Tower and found a concealed door leading to an underground level.
• Long Xuan discovered that the underground books contained the Long Family ancestors' methods for countering abilities across many disciplines, including saber techniques.
• Long Xuan released his five clones to study the archive and sent the Silvermoon Mantis to the first floor to learn saber techniques.

Long Xuan left the Long Family’s procession after the Jade Rabbit Fairy sensed a Heaven-grade Spirit Medicine nearby. He discovered a masked Peak Gu King presenting Living Wood at an auction, and suspected the display was a scheme to draw Gu Kings to Blackstone City.

• Long Xuan ended his half-month seclusion, during which he developed the usable but incomplete Bursting Fist, and joined the Long Family’s twelve candidates for the match against the Bai Clan.
• Long Ruoxue explained that Long Biao had been confined after killing the Family Head’s pet ant, so Long Bao and Long Yan would compete for the available Mid Marrow-Cleansing Stage slots.
• As the Long Family marched toward the central square, Long Xuan left a clone with the group and followed the Jade Rabbit Fairy after she sensed a Heaven-grade Spirit Medicine.
• The Jade Rabbit Fairy pointed out a masked Peak Gu King, and Long Xuan realized the man was carrying the Heaven-grade Spirit Medicine Living Wood to the Qian Clan Auction House.
• Long Xuan recognized that the Living Wood could extend a person’s lifespan by five hundred years and suspected the masked Gu King had revealed it to lure powerful Gu Kings to Blackstone City.
• Wary of the likely conspiracy and unwilling to challenge a Peak Gu King, Long Xuan left the auction house without trying to take the Living Wood.

The Long Family and Bai Clan began their arena contest over a Geng Metal Ore Vein, but the Bai Clan used Berserk Pills to give its fighters a dangerous advantage. After Long Yun was badly injured and her future cultivation ruined, Long Yuanshan ordered the Long Family talents to show no mercy in the remaining duels.

• Yan Pojun set the rules and randomly assigned Long Yun and Bai Changfeng to the first duel.
• Bai Changfeng overwhelmed Long Yun with power Long Xuan recognized as the result of a Berserk Pill.
• Long Yuanshan realized Bai Zhan planned to have the Bai Clan talents take Berserk Pills, sacrificing their future cultivation to win the ore vein.
• Bai Changfeng defeated Long Yun and left her unconscious with a ruined dantian, leaving her unable to advance beyond the Marrow-Cleansing Stage.
• Long Yuanshan ordered the Long Family talents to attack ruthlessly in the remaining duels, turning the contest into a potentially deadly struggle.

Long Xuan crippled Bai Shi in two moves during the arena matches, escalating the feud between the Long Family and Bai Clan. The next match began with Long Ziyan facing Bai Jian as both clans prepared to fight without mercy.

• Long Xuan realized the other clans and City Lord Yan Pojun would not stop the Long Family and Bai Clan from fighting because their rivals stood to benefit.
• Bai Zhan and the Bai Clan First Elder accepted that the matches would become life-and-death battles and resolved to protect their top three geniuses.
• Long Yuanshan ordered Long Xuan to cripple Bai Shi, and Long Xuan entered the second match against Bai Shi, who relied on Stone Transformation Gu.
• Long Xuan used Starstep and hidden force to break through Bai Shi’s stone armor, shatter his dantian, and leave him severely injured.
• Bai Zhan and the Bai Clan reacted furiously to Bai Shi’s defeat, while the Long Family celebrated and the other clans welcomed the escalating conflict.
• Long Yuanshan urged Long Ziyan to cripple Bai Jian quickly, and City Lord Yan Pojun announced their third match.

Long Ziyan crippled Bai Jian, and Bai Zhan realized the Long Family had brought in powerful outside geniuses. Fearing the loss of Bai Youran, he conceded the fourth match, then ordered the remaining Bai Clan fighters to fight to the death as the later matches continued.

• Long Ziyan defeated Bai Jian with one sword strike, leaving the Bai Clan's third-ranked genius crippled.
• Bai Zhan concluded that the Long Family had hired outside geniuses, while the First Elder recognized that the City Lord was unlikely to intervene.
• Bai Zhan refused to risk Bai Youran, the Bai Clan's last unpillared genius, and conceded the match against Long Dan.
• Bai Xue defeated Long Bao after he dodged her attacks and conceded, while Long Yuanshan called for his fighters to surrender when they were outmatched.
• Long Yan quickly conceded his match, but Long Qilin used the Ascending Dragon Gu to overpower and cripple his opponent.

Long Panpan secured the Long Family’s victory in the final arena match by revealing a higher cultivation stage, and the defeated Bai Clan withdrew. The tournament’s aftermath was overshadowed by news that Living Wood would be auctioned in three months, prompting Long Yuanshan to fear a gathering of powerful Gu Kings in Blackstone City.

• Long Panpan stepped onto the arena and broke through from Early to Mid Marrow-Cleansing Stage, leaving Bai Chen at a disadvantage.
• The Bai Clan protested Long Panpan’s breakthrough, but the City Lord allowed the match to proceed, and Bai Zhan conceded.
• Long Yuanshan and Long Qian discussed the Long Family’s victory, the damage to the Bai Clan, and the danger of their new feud.
• News spread that the Qian Clan Auction House would auction Living Wood in three months, stirring greed among the assembled clans.
• Long Yuanshan warned the Long Family to limit travel and prepare for the arrival of Gu Kings in Blackstone City.

Long Xuan and the Long Family identified the masked Peak Gu King as Shi Haojun, whose wife had been brutally sacrificed to save Black Moon City during a plague fifty years earlier. They realized Shi Haojun planned to lure Black Moon City’s Gu Kings away and attack the city, but the Long Family chose not to warn anyone and prepared to withdraw from Black Moon City.

• Long Xuan described the masked man as a handsome Peak Gu King with a faint scar on his right cheek, and Long Qian identified him as Shi Haojun, the Heaven-Equaling Ancestor.
• Long Qian and Long Yuanshan explained that Shi Rui, Shi Haojun’s wife, had used her poison-curing blood to treat Black Moon City during a plague, until the desperate residents drained her blood and cut her into pieces to save the city.
• Long Yuanshan recounted that Shi Haojun had tried to avenge Shi Rui alone, was badly injured by Black Moon City’s Gu Kings, and disappeared for fifty years.
• Long Yuanshan concluded that Shi Haojun had offered Living Wood to draw Black Moon City’s Gu Kings away so he could attack the city, and forbade the Long Family from alerting anyone.
• Long Yuanshan ordered the Long Family to stop traveling to Black Moon City and secretly withdraw all family members there within three months; Long Xuan felt relieved that Shi Haojun’s target was not Blackstone City.

After the Long Family defeated the Bai Clan, Long Xuan began researching the Blood Dragon Battle Gu Recipe in a secluded chamber, where the family supplied him with vast numbers of Divine Dragon Gu and other materials. He completed an improved recipe in one month but decided to hide that success and remain to refine Blade Gu using the materials delivered to him.

• Long Yuanshan announced the Lineage’s victory, ordered Long Yun supported for life, and took Long Xuan to discuss repairing the Blood Dragon Battle Gu Recipe.
• Long Yuanshan gave Long Xuan frozen Divine Dragon Gu fossils and promised to supply whatever materials his research required.
• Long Qilin, Long Panpan, Long Yan, and Long Bao planned to return home, while Long Xuan and Long Ziyan stayed to study their respective techniques and refine Blade Gu.
• Long Xuan replaced every extinct material in the Blood Dragon Battle Gu Recipe with existing materials, completing an expanded version after one month.
• Long Xuan chose to conceal his progress and continue staying in the chamber, where he could collect delivered materials and refine Blade Gu before leaving.

Long Xuan entered the Illusion Realm copy of an ancient tomb, which had already been robbed by a powerful figure, and explored its passages and chambers. He found an intact Divine Script legacy containing the powerful but evil Yin Harvesting Art and began considering how to adapt it into a technique that benefited both partners.

• Long Xuan realized living creatures in the tomb could make his plan dangerous, but chose to explore the copied tomb after discovering a hidden entrance tunnel.
• He found that a previous tomb robber had destroyed the passage murals, which had recorded a vast Gu Recipe, and concluded the robber must have been a formidable figure.
• Using progress to avoid mechanisms, Long Xuan passed through the stripped burial chambers and collected discarded items before remembering they were only part of the Illusion Realm.
• Long Xuan found an intact chamber and read its Divine Script murals, discovering the Yin Harvesting Art, an evil dual cultivation technique that could improve cultivation and bloodline purity.
• Long Xuan considered adapting the Yin Harvesting Art into a mutually beneficial dual cultivation technique.

Long Xuan conquered the ancient tomb in his Illusion Realm, found its hidden fossil treasure, and adapted the Yin Harvesting Art into the Yin-Yang Codex. He visited Long Ziyan with the new technique and found her compiling an ambitious Blade Gu recipe.

• Long Xuan repeatedly reentered the ancient tomb’s Illusion Realm, survived its traps, and reached the burial hall after losing ten lives.
• Long Xuan found an empty coffin and a hole where a rare spirit tree had been buried, then discovered a fossil hidden in the wall as the tomb-suppressing treasure.
• Long Xuan concluded that a living creature inside the fossil could not be replicated in the Origin Realm, so he planned to retrieve it from the real tomb with a clone.
• Long Xuan spent two months adapting the Yin Harvesting Art into the Yin-Yang Codex, changing it to benefit both partners and adding eighteen forms.
• Long Xuan went to Long Ziyan’s pavilion and saw her writing a Blade Gu Recipe with more than ten thousand materials.

Long Xuan asked Long Ziyan to translate a theological cultivation manual, then worried over whether she would agree to cultivate the Yin-Yang Canon until she came to his bed and said she agreed. The two went to the crowded Qian Clan auction for the Living Wood sale, where Qian Duoduo restricted entry to bidders able to pay an eight-million-Spirit-Stone deposit.

• Long Ziyan explained that her Blade Gu had chosen a ten-thousand-material recipe, and she intended to respect its choice and prepare the ingredients.
• Long Xuan left Long Ziyan a cultivation manual to translate and returned home, where he fretted over whether she would accept his proposal to cultivate the Yin-Yang Canon.
• On the third night, Long Ziyan visited Long Xuan and told him she agreed; he woke the next morning believing he had succeeded.
• Long Xuan and Long Ziyan headed hand in hand to the Qian Clan Auction House for its enormous three-session auction.
• Qian Duoduo announced that auction participants had to pay an eight-million-Spirit-Stone deposit to enter, turning away those unable to afford it.

Long Xuan and Long Ziyan arrived at the auction, where he learned Qian Jinjin had risen to prominence by dominating the Insect Armor Smith market. After securing a private room, Long Xuan offered Spirit-Recovery Wine for auction, and Qian Duoduo confirmed its remarkable potency.

• Long Ziyan explained that Qian Jinjin had been promoted to lead the Western Land branch after seizing the Insect Armor Smith market and becoming a leading candidate for clan head.
• Long Xuan protected Long Ziyan from a lecher in the crowd, paid their entry deposits, and called her his dao companion while requesting a private room.
• Qian Duoduo led Long Xuan and Long Ziyan into the last private room, Room Five, after Long Xuan said he had a valuable treasure to auction.
• Long Xuan placed thirty barrels of Spirit-Recovery Wine before Qian Duoduo and claimed it was the best spiritual-power recovery medicine for Marrow Cleansing Stage cultivators.
• Qian Duoduo tasted the wine and verified that it restored spiritual power far more effectively and quickly than Spirit-Recovery Pills, though it did not meet the auction's standard for a finale treasure.

Qian Duoduo took Long Xuan’s Spirit-Recovery Wine, intending to bundle it at auction and secretly buy it for refining a supreme-grade Wine Gu. As the auction began, Long Xuan recognized his Marrow-Washing Pills among the first items and hid the little creature that had made them.

• Qian Duoduo praised Long Xuan’s Spirit-Recovery Wine, took all thirty barrels, and arranged for them to be auctioned together.
• Long Ziyan asked for twenty barrels to refine a Wine Gu, and Long Xuan gave her the real wine while revealing he had diluted the wine Qian Duoduo took.
• Long Xuan spotted Feng Si in another private room, and Long Ziyan explained the alliance between the Western Land Feng Clan and the Far Western Feng Clan.
• Shao Shao began the auction by presenting a bottle of Marrow-Washing Pills, which Long Xuan recognized as pills he had traded to Qian Jinjin.
• A furry little head emerged from Long Xuan’s Insect-Rearing Pouch after smelling the pills, and Long Xuan quickly pushed it back inside.