Chapter Summaries

Su Bai gave his four disciples Spirit Stones and urged them to grow strong enough to protect themselves and the Heavenly Dao Sect. As they cultivated, the Jade Spirit Sect prepared to attack at dawn, while Zhao Baoxiao ordered Lingxiao Sect reinforcements to retrieve Xiao Lingxi.

• Su Bai persuaded Zhuge Feng, Xiao Yan, Xiao Lingxi, and Ye Qingyao to accept Spirit Stones and focus on cultivation, raising their loyalty to the sect to ninety-five.
• Ling Langxuan learned that the Heavenly Dao Sect had killed Jade Spirit Sect disciples and an elder, then ordered his forces to attack at dawn.
• Zhao Baoxiao learned Xiao Lingxi had been found but not captured, and he ordered a steward to ask Retainer Liu for outer sect elders to help bring her back.

After Xiao Lingxi broke through to Third-Level Qi Refinement, the Heavenly Dao Sect upgraded to a Two-Star sect, transforming its mountain and attracting widespread attention. Su Bai began to inspect the new system features, but the Jade Spirit Sect arrived to destroy his sect.

• Xiao Lingxi broke through to Third-Level Qi Refinement, and Su Bai received 30 Points as the sect upgraded to Two-Star.
• Su Bai saw that the upgrade activated the Points and Quest System and the Reputation System, while the next upgrade required more disciples, a Foundation Establishment disciple, and greater reputation.
• Su Bai upgraded the sect, causing its mountain, halls, pavilions, fields, and territory to expand as spiritual energy surged through the area.
• Onlookers were astonished by the Heavenly Dao Sect's transformation, while Xiao Yan resolved to train harder despite the expanded mountain making his running goal much longer.
• The Jade Spirit Sect announced from the sky that it was passing through and would destroy the Heavenly Dao Sect.

Ling Langxuan led the Jade Spirit Sect and other sect experts to the Heavenly Dao Sect, coveting its Spirit Vein and demanding vengeance for his dead followers. Su Bai confronted him and warned the attackers to stop, but they advanced into Su Bai’s ten-li invincible range.

• Ling Langxuan arrived with more than a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators and learned that a Spirit Vein likely lay beneath the Heavenly Dao Sect.
• Ling Langxuan demanded that Su Bai appear and accused him of killing Jade Spirit Sect elders and disciples; Su Bai admitted it.
• Ling Langxuan ordered his forces to kill everyone in the Heavenly Dao Sect except Xiao Lingxi, whom the Lingxiao Sect wanted captured.
• Su Bai warned the Jade Spirit Sect forces that anyone who stepped forward would die, but they mocked him and charged.
• Su Bai sighed as the attackers advanced and asked why they would risk their lives for thirty taels of silver a month.

Su Bai destroyed Jade Spirit Sect’s forces after Ling Langxuan attacked him, then warned other sects against invading Heavenly Dao Sect. Lingxiao Sect’s promised retaliation remained an ominous threat.

• Ling Langxuan attacked Su Bai, but Su Bai shattered his spirit sword with one finger.
• Su Bai immobilized Jade Spirit Sect’s thousand-plus members and killed them in a series of fiery explosions, collecting a Storage Ring.
• Su Bai declared that anyone who offended Heavenly Dao Sect or bullied his disciples would be killed, warning that invaders would share Jade Spirit Sect’s fate.
• Ling Langxuan begged Su Bai to spare him and offered to become his disciple, but Su Bai killed him with a finger flick.
• Witnesses praised Su Bai’s strength, while others wondered whether Heavenly Dao Sect could withstand Lingxiao Sect’s revenge.

Su Bai welcomed the four disciples into the Heavenly Dao Sect’s free residences and inspected the new missions and points stores. Meanwhile, Linglang True Person discovered that the Jade Spirit Sect had been destroyed, vowed to raze the Heavenly Dao Sect, and flew to the Lingxiao Sect to seek help.

• Su Bai assigned the four disciples luxurious, free pavilions and reassured them that the sect had plenty of silver and other resources.
• Su Bai examined the mission list and found tasks for fighting bandits, cultivating spirit plants, and cleaning the sect grounds.
• Su Bai opened the points stores and saw that disciples could exchange points for pills and battle arts, while his own store offered items to assist his disciples.
• Linglang True Person found the Jade Spirit Sect’s shattered Life Tablets and learned that the sect master had gone to the Heavenly Dao Sect.
• Linglang True Person destroyed the ancestral hall, killing the disciple who had brought him the news, then flew to the Lingxiao Sect to seek allies against the Heavenly Dao Sect.

Su Bai explained the sect’s missions to his disciples, then recruited at Cloudwater City’s gates and discovered that applicants were spies or too frightened of the Lingxiao Sect to join. The chapter left the Heavenly Dao Sect facing isolation until it could overcome the Lingxiao Sect’s intimidating reputation.

• Zhuge Feng, Xiao Yan, Xiao Lingxi, and Ye Qingyao chose missions, and Xiao Lingxi comforted Ye Qingyao by calling her a little sister and the sect their household.
• Su Bai went to Cloudwater City’s gates to recruit disciples, rejected a bribe, and declared that even those with a Mortal Body could achieve great things in the Heavenly Dao Sect.
• Su Bai’s loyalty test rejected Ma Xiaohu and nine other applicants, and he learned that Ma Xiaohu was a Tiger Might Sect spy sent to investigate the sect.
• Passersby said the Lingxiao Sect might retaliate for the destruction of its subordinate Jade Spirit Sect, and Su Bai realized fear of the Lingxiao Sect was keeping ordinary people from joining.

Su Bai encouraged Xiao Yan and the other disciples as they pushed themselves to grow stronger, then rewarded Xiao Yan for completing his training task. Three days later, Xiao Yan entered the First-Level Flesh Realm and Ye Qingyao successfully began Qi Refining at an extraordinary speed.

• Xiao Lingxi and Ye Qingyao finished cleaning and decorating the sect, while Zhuge Feng broke through to the Mid-Stage Qi Refinement.
• Xiao Yan described his intense training and his determination to protect his father and the Xiao Household and surpass Liu Yanran.
• Zhuge Feng, Xiao Lingxi, and Ye Qingyao declared that they would also give everything to change their fates, and Su Bai encouraged them.
• Xiao Yan completed ten li carrying a hundred jin and one hundred weighted push-ups, so Su Bai gave him Body-Tempering Spirit Liquid.
• Three days later, Xiao Yan broke through to the First-Level Flesh Realm, and Ye Qingyao entered Qi Refining after only eight and a half days.

Zhuge Feng, Xiao Lingxi, Xiao Yan, and Ye Qingyao prepared to undertake a bandit-clearing mission, choosing weapons from Su Bai’s collection. The disciples set out for the stronghold, while Su Bai secretly followed them.

• Su Bai agreed to let his four disciples accept the Fifth-Level Qi Refinement mission to destroy a bandit stronghold outside Cloudwater City.
• Su Bai offered the disciples spirit artifacts confiscated from the Jade Spirit Sect, and they chose a staff, a sword, and a dagger.
• Xiao Yan could not find a weapon heavy enough, so Su Bai revealed the Mystic Iron Ruler he had specially obtained for him.
• Su Bai warned the disciples not to let their guard down, and the four solemnly promised to heed him.
• The four disciples departed for the bandit stronghold, and Su Bai silently followed them.

Xiao Yan, Zhuge Feng, Xiao Lingxi, and a hidden fourth disciple ambushed the bandits of Black Wolf Stronghold and killed all but their leader. The bearded leader remained alive at Fifth-Level Qi Refinement as the battle reached its final confrontation.

• A band of more than a dozen bandits returned to Black Wolf Stronghold with stolen goods and an unconscious young woman.
• Xiao Yan blocked the stronghold entrance and revealed himself as a disciple of the Heavenly Dao Sect.
• Xiao Yan killed a First-Level Qi Refinement bandit with one blow of the Mystic Iron Ruler.
• Zhuge Feng and Xiao Lingxi joined Xiao Yan to fight the attacking bandits, while a fourth disciple emerged from underground and struck from behind.
• The four disciples killed every bandit except the bearded leader, who had Fifth-Level Qi Refinement.

Xiao Yan, Zhuge Feng, Xiao Lingxi, and Ye Qingyao confronted the Black Wolf Gang and learned that the White Wolf Sect protected it. The captive girl awakened with a terrifying Demonic Flame, and the disciples escaped with her before the White Wolf Sect arrived, leaving Su Bai to suspect she had an extraordinary constitution.

• The bearded leader identified the attackers as members of the Heavenly Dao Sect and summoned the White Wolf Sect while holding the unconscious girl hostage.
• He revealed that the White Wolf Sect protected the Black Wolf Gang in exchange for a share of its plunder, and its experts approached as the disciples hesitated over the hostage.
• Su Bai decided he might need to intervene, but the girl woke and unleashed Demonic Flame that burned the bearded leader to death after Zhuge Feng and Xiao Lingxi attacked him.
• The girl fainted again, and Ye Qingyao caught her as the White Wolf Sect's riders neared.
• Zhuge Feng led the disciples away with the girl, while Su Bai examined the Demonic Flame traces and suspected she had an extraordinary constitution.

Su Bai’s disciples returned from wiping out Black Wolf Stronghold, and he reprimanded them for failing to adapt their plan when they discovered hostages. After a strange flame erupted from the rescued girl, Su Bai identified her Heavenly Demon Physique and warned that the Nine Nether Demon Flame would kill her when she turned eighteen.

• Zhuge Feng reported that the disciples had destroyed Black Wolf Stronghold, but its leader had threatened them with a hostage and nearly escaped with help from the White Wolf Sect.
• Su Bai questioned Zhuge Feng, Xiao Yan, and Xiao Lingxi about their failure to rescue the hostage first, then deducted and restored ten mission points as a lesson and reward.
• The rescued girl awoke, and her Nine Nether Demon Flame erupted, scorching the surrounding grass, trees, and ground before Su Bai suppressed it with a talisman.
• Su Bai identified the flame as one of the ten Primordial Fires, and Xiao Lingxi explained the legendary power of Primordial Fires.
• Su Bai recognized the girl as possessing the rare Heavenly Demon Physique and warned that the Nine Nether Demon Flame would erupt when she turned eighteen and end her life.

Su Bai learned that Mu Lingxian had two years to reach Foundation Establishment and form a Demonic Dao Platform to survive, but her sect loyalty remained too low to join the Heavenly Dao Sect. Meanwhile, True Person Yuan led a massive Lingxiao Sect force to Cloudwater City and sent a mountain crashing toward the Heavenly Dao Sect.

• Su Bai explained that Mu Lingxian could survive only if she reached Foundation Establishment before turning eighteen, and he ordered his disciples not to tell her about her condition.
• Xiao Lingxi comforted Mu Lingxian and learned that bandits had destroyed her merchant caravan, leaving her as the sole survivor; Mu Lingxian's sect loyalty rose to twenty.
• People at Cloudwater City's Hundred Sects Assembly discussed how the Lingxiao Sect's withdrawal had prompted many other sects to stop recruiting there.
• True Person Yuan arrived with the Lingxiao Sect's war chariot and a vast army, declared that the sect would annihilate the Heavenly Dao Sect, and uprooted a mountain.
• True Person Yuan hurled the mountain toward the Heavenly Dao Sect, while the people of Cloudwater City feared the sect was finished.

Su Bai emerged to confront True Person Yuan and the Lingxiao Sect after he destroyed their mountain attack. With three Golden Core True Persons and thousands of disciples arrayed against the Heavenly Dao Sect, Su Bai warned them not to advance.

• True Person Yuan’s mountain attack stopped above the Heavenly Dao Sect, and beams from the sect shattered it.
• True Person Yuan recognized Su Bai as a Golden Core True Person and demanded that he come out and die.
• Su Bai appeared in midair and faced True Person Yuan, Linglang True Person, and Liu He, who each threatened him.
• Thousands of Lingxiao Sect disciples joined the three Golden Core True Persons, alarming the people of Cloudwater City.
• True Person Yuan demanded Su Bai surrender, but Su Bai dismissed him and warned that another step would turn heaven and earth upside down.

Su Bai lured the Lingxiao Sect forces into the ten-li range of the Heavenly Dao Sect, then revealed his overwhelming power by freezing them all in place. True Person Yuan realized Su Bai was not a Golden Core cultivator but a Nascent Soul.

• True Person Yuan charged Su Bai with his blood saber, and Su Bai pretended to be driven back behind the Heavenly Dao Sect's defensive barrier.
• True Person Yuan, Liu He, Linglang True Person, and several thousand Lingxiao Sect disciples attacked the barrier but failed to break it.
• Su Bai reassured Zhuge Feng, Xiao Yan, Xiao Lingxi, and the other disciples that he was playing cat and mouse until the last enemy entered his range.
• Su Bai withdrew the barrier and froze Linglang True Person, Liu He, True Person Yuan, and the surrounding forces with a snap of his fingers.
• True Person Yuan stared at Su Bai in horror and recognized that he had reached the Nascent Soul Stage.

Su Bai revealed himself as a Nascent Soul expert and destroyed Linglang True Person and the Lingxiao Sect forces, establishing the Heavenly Dao Sect’s power and earning it a flood of reputation and wealth. As crowds gathered to join the sect, Su Bai considered how to handle the influx of disciples.

• True Person Yuan identified Su Bai as a Nascent Soul expert, terrifying Linglang True Person and the other Lingxiao Sect members.
• Su Bai burned Linglang True Person to ashes after refusing his plea for mercy.
• Su Bai wiped out the remaining Lingxiao Sect forces, while the Heavenly Dao Sect’s reputation surged and Cloudwater City celebrated its rise.
• Su Bai harvested the enemies’ storage rings and pouches, then reviewed his greatly increased wealth in the main hall.
• Zhuge Feng told Su Bai that crowds had gathered at the mountain gate hoping to join the Heavenly Dao Sect, and Su Bai began considering how to accept them.

Su Bai explained that Heavenly Dao Sect’s Heaven-Ascending Ladder judged candidates by their loyalty and sincerity rather than talent or Spirit Roots. When a Rootless girl climbed to the ninetieth step and challenged a High-Grade Spirit Root’s contempt for Mortal Bodies, Ye Qingyao demonstrated a fireball and asked who said they could not cultivate immortality.

• Su Bai told Zhuge Feng that disciples could receive one free Immortal Art and that the Guardian Spirit would detect and punish anyone who shared its incantations.
• Su Bai created the Heaven-Ascending Ladder, assigning disciple generations according to the number of steps climbed, and Zhuge Feng went to arrange the assessment.
• The assessment drew a huge crowd, but nearly everyone failed to climb even ten steps, and frustrated candidates complained about the ladder.
• Ye Qingyao, the Rootless girl rejected at the Hundred Sects Assembly, climbed to the ninetieth step and told the crowd that sincere hearts could enter Heavenly Dao Sect.
• A High-Grade Spirit Root mocked Mortal Bodies, so Ye Qingyao summoned a fireball and challenged his claim that they could not cultivate immortality.

Ye Qingyao revealed that she had achieved Qi Refining despite her Mortal Body, inspiring the crowd, while Xiao Yan defeated a Second-Level Qi Refinement genius from the Cloud Heaven Sect. The crowd rushed to join the Heavenly Dao Sect, and Su Bai watched with satisfaction as the two disciples showed how far they had come.

• Ye Qingyao demonstrated the Fireball Technique and announced that her Mortal Body had not stopped her from seeking immortality, stunning the crowd with her rapid Qi Refining progress.
• A High-Grade Spirit Root genius revealed that he had reached Second-Level Qi Refinement and challenged Ye Qingyao, but Xiao Yan stepped forward to fight him instead.
• The genius identified himself as a Cloud Heaven Sect disciple and attacked Xiao Yan with the Cloudsky Art.
• Xiao Yan struck the genius with his Mystic Iron Ruler, sent him flying, and forced him to leave after threatening Xiao Yan with a confrontation at the Immortal Alliance Assembly.
• The crowd became eager to join the Heavenly Dao Sect after seeing Xiao Yan and Ye Qingyao succeed, while Su Bai approved of their progress from the mountaintop.

Mu Lingxian climbed to the fifty-ninth level of the Heavenly Ladder, then stopped as Su Bai discovered she was trapped in a spiritual world. He entered it and comforted her as she relived the demonic flames that had killed her adoptive parents, but a new scene began before she could respond to his encouragement.

• Mu Lingxian climbed steadily to the fifty-ninth level, inspiring the other candidates to press higher.
• Su Bai noticed that Mu Lingxian had entered a spiritual world and sent a spiritual incarnation inside.
• Su Bai found Mu Lingxian surrounded by demonic flames, and she warned him to stay away because she feared she would kill him.
• Su Bai endured Mu Lingxian’s flames unharmed, then listened as she described her adoptive parents’ deaths and her despair.
• Su Bai soothed Mu Lingxian and asked whether she wanted to control her flames, encouraging her to believe she could.
• The flames vanished, the spiritual world turned bitterly cold, and Su Bai saw a child version of Mu Lingxian curled outside a family’s door.

Su Bai guided Mu Lingxian through memories of her childhood, learning how the Demonic Flame isolated her and destroyed her home, and offered to teach her to control it in the Heavenly Dao Sect. Mu Lingxian passed the trial, resolved to become an immortal capable of resurrecting her adoptive parents, and bowed to Su Bai as her master.

• A physician couple found the feverish Mu Lingxian abandoned outside their home, adopted her, and raised her as their daughter.
• As Mu Lingxian grew older, her Demonic Flame repeatedly lost control, frightening the people around her and forcing her into isolation.
• When Mu Lingxian was sixteen, a great fire destroyed her home and killed her adoptive parents.
• Su Bai calmed the flames in Mu Lingxian's memories and promised to teach her to control them if she joined the Heavenly Dao Sect.
• Mu Lingxian climbed to the eightieth step and asked whether powerful immortals could resurrect the dead.
• After Su Bai said immortality might offer a way to reverse life and death, Mu Lingxian climbed to the eighty-first step and bowed to him as her master.

Mu Lingxian chose the Heavenly Demon Transformation at the Immortal Arts Pavilion and received guidance on pursuing immortality. After the day's assessment ended, Li Chang Kong, an elder of the Immortal Alliance, arrived with Yan'er to meet Su Bai, while Yan'er began climbing the Heaven-Ascending Ladder.

• Mu Lingxian reached the ninetieth level of the Heavenly Ladder and became a second-generation disciple, then went with Xiao Lingxi and Ye Qingyao to the Immortal Arts Pavilion.
• The Guardian Spirit gave Mu Lingxian the Qi Refining Chapter of the Heavenly Demon Transformation to help suppress the Nine Nether Demon Flame.
• The Guardian Spirit told Mu Lingxian that becoming immortal depended on the person rather than the technique, and she memorized the chapter.
• The day's assessment ended without anyone besides Mu Lingxian reaching the sixtieth level, though the other climbers resolved to keep trying.
• Li Chang Kong arrived at the Heavenly Dao Sect with Yan'er, identified himself as an elder of the Immortal Alliance, and sent her to climb the ladder.
• Su Bai appeared before Li Chang Kong, and Yan'er reached the ladder's tenth level.