Chapter Summaries

Lin Xin tracked down the escaped demon and Third Prince Xu Hong, killing them with fire spells, but discovered a Demon Talisman Seed among the ashes. He then answered a signal from Qing Qiu Zheng Ran and arrived at the siege of Hua Ying Daoist, who had sheltered Xu Hong.

• Lin Xin ordered Du Ning to have the sect master settle matters quickly, then received Xu Hong’s jade pendant from Qing Qiu Zheng Ran and gave the sect silver-white signal marks.
• Lin Xin followed the aura from the pendant to a red pine forest, where he found the Red-Clothed Woman teaching a young man.
• Lin Xin identified the woman as the escaped demon and the young man as Third Prince Xu Hong, then burned the woman to death and swallowed Xu Hong’s escaping black light with a fire spider.
• Lin Xin found a Demon Talisman Seed among the ashes and suspected Xu Hong’s rise was tied to the Nether Prefecture.
• Lin Xin followed a signal to a grassland, where Qing Qiu Zheng Ran and a crowd of soldiers and cultivators besieged Hua Ying Daoist for sheltering Xu Hong.

Lin Xin trained in Red Pine Swordplay while Bo Yunzi taught the others and described the martial world beyond Red Pine City. After a mysterious visitor summoned Bo Yunzi away, Lin Xin learned he would be gone for three months, just as An Ying reminded him of their Lantern Festival promise to visit his home together.

• Lin Xin practiced Red Pine Swordplay, and Bo Yunzi demonstrated the Pine Sun Needle against An Ying, whose Minor Returning Origin Art let her withstand his attack.
• Bo Yunzi explained that Jade Forest Saber Chang Chun and the One Path Sect led the northwest martial world, while the Plum Blossom Sect governed the nearby small cities.
• A skinny man delivered a black iron dart and told Bo Yunzi that the time had come, prompting Bo Yunzi to leave the training hall.
• An Ying shyly reminded Lin Xin that he had promised to take her home for the Lantern Festival, and Lin Xin admired her white outfit.
• Lin Xin and the others found a note saying Bo Yunzi had matters to attend to outside and would return in three months.

Lin Xin performed a summoning ritual with the Red Flower Sword, offering animals to attract otherworldly creatures and choosing a small red flower as his contracted target. After completing the sword’s sacrificial refinement, he learned the creature’s name: the Man-Eating Flower, Yin Manto.

• Lin Xin prepared the Red Flower Sword with 222 sacrificial fire formations while Zen Master San Yuan and the other experts guarded the area from a distance.
• Lin Xin activated the formations and chanted in Netherworld Language, causing the animals in the pit to dissolve into blood and feed a portal.
• Lin Xin sensed three powerful creatures through the portal and chose the small red flower over a bandaged monster and a three-trunked elephant.
• A beam of red light struck the Red Flower Sword, and Lin Xin completed three layers of sacrificial refinement without suffering backlash.
• Lin Xin asked the contracted creature for its name and learned that it was the Man-Eating Flower, Yin Manto.

Lin Xin discovered a strange Six-Winged Bee emerging from the fried-cake seller’s corpse and stopped it from attacking Fatty. After the old woman was cremated, he left Fatty with a nearby shopkeeper who agreed to adopt him.

• Lin Xin spent several days exploring Peacock City and visited his favorite fried-cake stall on the sixth morning.
• The old woman suddenly collapsed and rapidly withered away, leaving Fatty crying over her body.
• A Six-Winged Bee crawled from the old woman’s ear and flew toward Fatty, so Lin Xin cut it down with his sword.
• The bee’s remains vanished, and constables took the old woman’s body outside the city to be burned.
• Lin Xin learned that Fatty had no family besides his grandmother and took him along after the cremation.
• A childless clothing-shop owner offered to adopt Fatty, and Lin Xin handed him over while asking about the boy’s circumstances.

Lin Xin’s party encountered bandits near Yin Mountain Lake and discovered a Wine Stone that turned water into wine at the cost of human corpses. After reaching the fog-shrouded lake, Lin Xin left Xiao Lingling with Zen Master San Yuan and led a small group along the shore, where they spotted a thatched hut.

• Two wine sellers ambushed Lin Xin’s party, but Zen Master San Yuan killed them and helped defeat the attacking bandits.
• Lin Xin ordered the captured bandits kept alive and learned that one of them had found a purplish-red stone in a talking well.
• Lin Xin identified the stone as a possible Wine Stone, which produced wine from water and could consume human corpses as fuel.
• The Wine Stone produced fragrant wine overnight, and Lin Xin explained that it was called Dead Man’s Wine.
• Lin Xin’s party reached Yin Mountain Lake, where he left Xiao Lingling and Zen Master San Yuan behind and took Daoist Lu Suo, Gongsun Li, and eight men along the shore.
• Lin Xin and his group spotted a crude thatched hut through the dense fog.

After defeating Wu Sheng Dao Zi and clashing with Zheng Yunzhen, Lin Xin discovered that absorbing another demon body strengthened his constitution and advanced his Primal Battle Demon Art. He studied Zheng Yunzhen’s Flowing Cloud Saber Intent, then returned to the Cloud Soaring Sword School, where the sect gathered to watch his renewed challenge.

• Lin Xin absorbed the Black Death Demon Body’s power, raising his constitution to 21 and advancing his Primal Battle Demon Art to 37% of the first layer.
• Lin Xin recovered in the forest, then spent hours trying to understand and imitate Zheng Yunzhen’s Flowing Cloud Saber Intent.
• Lin Xin set off alone for the Cloud Soaring Sword School after recalling his previous battle with Zheng Yunzhen.
• A Registered Disciple told Zheng Yunzhen that Red Flower had returned to the mountain gate, and Zheng Yunzhen went with a Yellow-Robed Old Man to meet him.
• The girl in the red dress mocked Red Flower as he silently stepped onto the platform to await Zheng Yunzhen.

Lin Xin defeated a silver-armored Two-Faced Person after a brutal battle, then reclaimed the corpse’s spoils from a scavenger who ambushed him. Back in the dark courtyard, he discovered a booklet identifying the place he had entered as the Nether Prefecture.

• Lin Xin fought the silver-armored man for over an hour, finally killing him after repeated sword strikes deepened the wound at his waist.
• A black-clothed man tried to take the corpse’s spoils, but Lin Xin used Yin Manto and a final feint to recover the bundle and steal the man’s pouch.
• The black-clothed man fled with a young girl, and they discussed their worsening hallucinations, their wanted status in the Two-Faced Country, and their hope of restoring their sect.
• Two-Faced Country experts approached, forcing the pair to escape as green smoke.
• Lin Xin returned to a dark courtyard, noticed his cultivation progress had risen to 56%, and examined the Demon Talisman Seed, bronze token, and stolen belongings.
• Lin Xin opened a black booklet and read its title, “Nether Prefecture,” followed by a line declaring that those who entered were neither human, ghost, demon, nor fiend.

Lin Xin traded with Pu Dusheng for Demon Talisman Seeds, materials, language lessons, and information about outsiders, agreeing to help handle experts Pu Dusheng dealt with. Back at his courtyard, Lin Xin used five seeds to gain attributes and strengthen his physique, leaving him to study his new books and refine the Azure Blood Demoness Pearl.

• Lin Xin met Pu Dusheng in the Bamboo Building and exchanged spirit jades for eight Demon Talisman Seeds while requesting language lessons and information about outsiders.
• Pu Dusheng and Lin Xin negotiated a price for Moon Silver Ore, and Lin Xin agreed to handle experts Pu Dusheng dealt with in exchange for access to more materials and cultivation resources.
• Lin Xin returned to his courtyard and reasoned that Demon Talisman Seeds were now his main way to gain attribute points because the Red Flower Sword absorbed his excess Inner Qi.
• Lin Xin burned five Demon Talisman Seeds and gained five free attribute points, which he allocated to physique, damage, and defense.
• Lin Xin tested his increased speed, defense, and recovery, then prepared to refine the Azure Blood Demoness Pearl and review his newly acquired cultivation methods.

Lin Xin defeated the Jade Fox King and a powerful monster at Wangfu Mountain, then captured an unconscious Jade Fox girl and left before encountering stronger demons. In a cave, he absorbed thirty Demon Talisman Seeds and began raising his damage attribute.

• Lin Xin split the Jade Fox demons’ flower-basket artifact with the Red Flower Sword and defeated the Jade Fox King with three sword strikes.
• A late Golden Core monster rushed to avenge Sister Wan, and Lin Xin fought it before leaving Wangfu Mountain with an unconscious Jade Fox girl.
• Lin Xin flew to a remote mountaintop, hid himself in a cave, and extended the girl’s unconsciousness while securing the entrance.
• Lin Xin burned thirty Demon Talisman Seeds and absorbed their red smoke, gaining thirty free attributes.
• Lin Xin assessed his attributes and poured most of his points into damage.

Lin Xin uncovered the mountain god and fox demon’s attempt to lure him to the Yin Spring and killed them. Meanwhile, the young disciples found and fought a Golden Python, which fled toward the courtyard behind the Daoist temple, and Lin Xin followed.

• The mountain god explained that Sa Han had gathered forty-five victims’ resentment while refining a treasure beneath Demon God Temple, where a strange Yin Spring lay.
• Lin Xin saw through the mountain god and woman’s deception, revealed their demonic forms, and killed them with the Red Flower Sword.
• Lin Xin returned to find the young disciples searching the rocks; Qin Ye used a magic artifact to locate a demon’s lair, and they unearthed a Golden Python.
• The disciples fought the Golden Python until he was injured and fled toward the courtyard behind the Daoist temple, which Lin Xin suspected contained the Yin Spring.
• Lin Xin followed the fleeing Golden Python and sensed two other expert guards moving alongside the disciples.

Huang Yuqing recruited Lin Xin to accompany her daughter to the Kun Lin Sword School, securing him a legal identity, travel permit, and compensation. When Ma Jingxuan arrived, Lin Xin was surprised by her appearance and began to suspect she was only an ordinary disciple, not the prodigy her family claimed.

• Huang Yuqing visited Lin Xin and invited him to serve as Ma Jingxuan’s attendant and steward at the Kun Lin Sword School.
• Lin Xin accepted after negotiating for an official identity, a broad travel permit, access to the school’s benefits, Jade Coins, and medicinal pills.
• Lin Xin discovered that reciting Buddhist scriptures made the Green Fish Lantern warm and gradually restored sensation to his decaying body.
• Ma Jingxuan visited Lin Xin and said they could leave for the sword school together the next day.
• Ma Jingxuan explained that she could not stop gaining weight despite training and medical consultations, then discussed their journey and plans at the school.
• Lin Xin listened to Ma Jingxuan and suspected she was an ordinary Formal Disciple rather than the prodigy the Ma family claimed.

Lin Xin raised his attributes during Sword Testing, discovered that excessive imbalance threatened his life, and later survived an unexplained gathering of wandering ghosts. After more than half a month of training with a captive jade fox, he mastered her Jade Fox Dao Intent as a skill and released her, but remained puzzled that his Red Flower Sword Intent had never become one.

• Lin Xin raised his attributes to seventy-seven, suffered heart pain from the imbalance, and increased his constitution until his internal organs recovered.
• Wandering ghosts gathered outside Lin Xin's cave, but he destroyed them with a rune and sealed the cave with another formation disk.
• Lin Xin spent more than half a month resting, comprehending, and fighting the captive jade fox to study her Dao Intent.
• Lin Xin mastered the Jade Fox Dao Intent and discovered that his ability had turned it into a skill he could activate and withdraw.
• Lin Xin released the jade fox and wondered why his Red Flower Sword Intent had never formed a skill.

Lin Xin caught Sha Sha after she stole the group’s belongings and learned that she had an Abyssal Physique, which made her valuable to several forces. Sha Sha repeatedly tried to escape, but she ended up back in Lin Xin’s room, where he pinned her down again.

• Sha Sha stole a bundle containing Wang Peng’s Ice Fire Taiji Diagram, but Lin Xin tracked her through Liao City and caught her.
• Sha Sha tried to escape with a concealment technique and a seduction ploy, but Lin Xin knocked her unconscious and carried her to the inn.
• The fat man told Lin Xin that Sha Sha had an Abyssal Physique capable of purifying stored energy and returning it to help break through bottlenecks.
• Lin Xin returned the stolen bundle to Wang Peng and confirmed with Fei Pengzi that they had found the Lion Fist Gate.
• After Lin Xin placed a restriction on Sha Sha and she fled the room, she returned shortly afterward and charged at him, but he stamped her into the ground.

Lin Xin challenged Zheng Yunzhen again, using their fight to study the Flowing Cloud Saber Intent before withdrawing. Back at his camp, he realized that Dao Intent arose from resonance between a cultivator’s will and the laws of nature, and wondered whether his knowledge of science could help him form a unique Dao Intent.

• Huo Er angrily urged the girl to stop wasting her strength, and the plump Daoist calmed her and warned that she was becoming obsessed.
• Lin Xin drew his Red Flower Sword and challenged Zheng Yunzhen, who activated the array defenses and fought him with his sword techniques.
• Zheng Yunzhen used Dao Questioning First Sword: Heartlessness to break Lin Xin’s Divine Shadow and drive him into a difficult defense.
• Lin Xin studied the Flowing Cloud Saber Intent during the fight, then broke through the barrier and fled after deciding he had learned enough.
• In the forest, Lin Xin pondered Dao Intent and realized that personal will resonated with heaven and nature to form it.
• Lin Xin connected this idea to his knowledge of science and considered using his understanding of natural laws to create a unique Dao Intent.

Lin Xin reached Sun Soul Mountain and learned that Shadow City had taken Lin Yaoyang to Nine Clouds City. He arrived to confront Longevity Venerable and the Ten Thousand Bull King, who challenged him to defeat the king before he could save his sister.

• Lin Xin rescued a besieged Soul Sect group by killing hundreds of Void Demon Spirits and asked them about Lin Yaoyang.
• The Soul Sect elder told Lin Xin that Shadow City experts had escorted Lin Yaoyang northwest toward Nine Clouds City.
• Longevity Venerable and the Ten Thousand Bull King discussed their plan to use Lin Yaoyang to lure Lin Xin away from Azure Lake Mountain.
• Lin Xin arrived above Nine Clouds City and found Lin Yaoyang held captive by Longevity Venerable.
• Longevity Venerable ordered Lin Xin to defeat the Ten Thousand Bull King to save Lin Yaoyang, and Lin Xin demanded that the hostage be handed over within three breaths.

Lin Xin’s group captured two bandit leaders and left Feng Ling behind when she begged for help avenging her family. Later, the captives revealed that Feng Ling was the manor’s surviving second miss and that the Twin Demon Lord had slaughtered her family; his power kept her from taking revenge.

• A Foundation Establishment aura attacked the carriage, and Lin Xin’s group defeated and captured the Green-Clothed Man and the fat bandit leader.
• Feng Ling accused Lin Xin’s group of causing the caravan’s casualties, then admitted through her desperate pleas that she wanted help obtaining revenge.
• Lin Xin exposed Feng Ling’s attempt to manipulate them and left with his companions while she continued kowtowing in the dirt.
• Aboard the Giant Calamity Carriage, the fat captive said Feng Ling was likely the sole survivor of a manor massacred by its son-in-law.
• The Green-Clothed Man identified the killer as the Twin Demon Lord, who preserved the manor’s eldest miss as a corpse puppet and was letting Feng Ling live until she reached her most beautiful moment.

Nine Colors Divine Lord arranged for Myriad Scrolls Celestial Venerable to guard him during his return to the Golden Lotus in six thousand years, while Fang Yu revealed that his chance to attain the Dao depended on Nine Colors. As calamity qi consumed most of the world, Lin Xin decided to investigate the Nether Prefecture and left the Nether Palace in the care of Lin Yi and Lin Wai.

• Nine Colors Divine Lord told Myriad Scrolls Celestial Venerable to guard him during his planned return to the Golden Lotus and warned him about the Origin Free Serene Heavenly Demon, the Heavenly Demon Warlord, and the Dao Ancestors.
• Fang Yu told his skeleton attendant that Nine Colors was central to his chance to attain the Dao and that the three protagonists of the Great Calamity were himself, Nine Colors, and Heavenly Sound.
• Calamity qi devastated the Human Realm, leaving the Northern Maze, Netherworld City, and Water-Fire Maze as the largest surviving gathering places.
• Lin Xin struggled to comprehend the Dao Ancestor Source and decided to investigate the Nether Prefecture and search for Fang Yu and the Red Leaf Sword Master.
• Lin Xin entrusted the Netherworld City’s affairs to Lin Yi and Lin Wai, confirmed its resources could sustain its cultivators, and departed.

Bo Yunzi attacked Lin Xin for the secret manual, but An Ying intervened and the two disciples were poisoned before Bo Yunzi saved them. He stayed at Red Pine Sect and began training Lin Xin and An Ying, while Lin Xin's worsening vision hampered his practice.

• Bo Yunzi confronted Lin Xin over the secret manual and struck at him, but An Ying blocked the attack with her sword.
• Bo Yunzi fled after An Ying fought him, and Lin Xin and An Ying collapsed from the poison in his foul palm wind.
• Bo Yunzi returned in the morning, criticized Lin Xin, and ordered him to buy medicinal ingredients while warning him not to flee.
• Over the following fifteen days, Bo Yunzi stayed at Red Pine Sect and supervised the disciples' sword practice, favoring An Ying while Lin Xin struggled with blurry vision.
• Bo Yunzi explained that Red Pine Sect had two external arts and one internal art, naming Red Pine Swordplay and his Poison Sand Palm.

Lin Xin observed the Kun Lin Sword School and learned about the Central Prefecture’s powers and travel requirements while Ma Jingxuan’s devotion to Fang Ziwen became clear. The chapter left Ma Jingxuan training past exhaustion as Lin Xin warned her to rest.

• Luo Shengwu arrived during the sword-school brawl, and Nan Xiu Lu and another disciple helped end the confrontation.
• Ma Jingxuan escorted Lin Xin toward the administration building, where Fang Ziwen returned an item and arranged to meet her later; Lin Xin recognized her affection for him.
• After spending more than ten days at the school, Lin Xin learned about the Central Prefecture’s political order, travel permits, and epidemic inspections.
• Jing Jing told Lin Xin more about Ma Jingxuan’s role in Fang Ziwen’s pavilion and how she had supported Fang Ziwen’s rise while harboring a secret crush on him.
• Lin Xin watched Ma Jingxuan practice despite her bruises and exhaustion, then advised her that overtraining could harm her body and slow her progress.

The Phantom Light Clan, Sand Rabbit Clan, and Lin Xin converged on the ruins, each pursuing the Evil God Weapon. Lin Xin arrived outside the ruins and sent his insect army to scout while preparing to investigate the treasure Hong Ye had mentioned.

• The Phantom Light Clan discussed the Evil God Weapon and the Sand Rabbit Clan, then the God of Joy transported his group toward the ruins.
• The Sand Rabbit chief planned to control nearby plants, wait for the other factions to weaken one another, and seize the Evil God Weapon, while keeping the King Artifact ready for an escape.
• Lin Xin landed outside the ruins and reflected that his pain and absorbed memories had helped him reach genius-level Dao intent comprehension and advance toward the fifth level of the Primal Battle Demon Art.
• Lin Xin sent most of his insects to scout and report, leaving Succubus Queen Bees to guard the airship.
• White Snake offered to clear the path, but Golden Beetle warned that the outer domain was dangerous; Yin Manto remained silent beside Lin Xin.