Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Chen Cuo traps the black-robed elder—another being who mistakes him for Chen Fangqing—using a prepared statue and a Golden Man’s incomplete Demon-Binding Cord.
• The elder begins to escape as mist, but Chen Cuo uses a Sundial and the River of Time’s Lost-Time Art to reverse the flow around him and drag him back. The statue then draws in the elder, exploiting the connection he created when he used it to spread his Void-Reality power.
• The elder tries to turn himself to stone and seal himself away. Chen Cuo counters through the White Lotus Avatar, stirring the elder’s own Golden Blood and disrupting the attempt. The elder is ultimately swallowed by the statue.
• After confirming his fellow disciples are safe, Chen Cuo looks toward the Great Hua Secret Realm, which is enclosed by a strange mist that blocks passage in either direction.
• A resonance between the blood sealed in the White Lotus Avatar and the statue gives Chen Cuo a revelation: he has gained control of part of Tian Wu’s Nature and Life. His awareness is then carried to a vast, empty void, where he sees a chain-bound figure.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo demonstrates patience and strategic foresight. Rather than intervene immediately, he lets the elder reveal his methods, then turns the elder’s own actions and connections against him. He remains concerned for his disciples, the Master’s Sect, and whether he can alter the future foretold by the River of Time.
• The black-robed elder shifts from confidence to shock and wary respect as each escape attempt fails. He recognizes Chen Cuo’s elaborate planning and fears that Chen Fangqing may be a powerful figure from beyond the heavens. His rivalry with Chen Cuo ends, for now, with him captured.
• Chen Cuo’s concern for his fellow disciples and hidden allies underscores his protective role, while the elder’s repeated attempts to flee drive their confrontation.

Significant themes

• Foresight and counter-scheming: Careful preparation lets Chen Cuo turn the elder’s own powers into traps.
• Power, limits, and fate: The elder claims some outcomes cannot be changed, while Chen Cuo wonders whether he can break the future predicted by the River of Time.
• Cause and effect: The elder’s use of the statue leaves a connection that Chen Cuo exploits; actions create vulnerabilities.
• Transformation and inheritance: By capturing the elder and resonating with the blood, Chen Cuo acquires a portion of Tian Wu’s Nature and Life, opening a new and mysterious stage in his journey.

Plot points and events

• Chen Cuo’s will reaches the void between the Mortal World and Beyond the Mundane through the connection between his blood and the Ancient God. There, he finds a figure bound in black chains and realizes he is present only as the nascent form of his Dharma Form, the Golden Body Bronze Man.
• The sealed Ancient God’s lingering power takes the shape of a vast, three-headed mist giant that attacks Chen Cuo with Heart Plague thoughts. Chen Cuo connects to the River Domain and uses its cleansing force to repel the assault. His Little Gourd then absorbs the remaining pressure, mist, and rain, leaving the void quiet.
• In the Kunlun Secret Realm, a long-haired man and the Woman in Black discuss the planned fall of Great Hua Mountain and the political consequences for the Eight Sects. The long-haired man reveals that he has quietly helped shape Chen Fangqing’s rise, hoping to bring his unpredictable Fate Pattern within his calculations.
• A black stone on the man’s chessboard suddenly shatters, signaling that his plan has been disrupted. He sends Qingfeng, the artifact spirit of Chen Fangqing’s incarnation, to teach him the Nine Apertures Spirit-Anchoring Method, a profound Pangu art.
• The long-haired man sends a spark of Spirit Light toward the Zhou–Qi border. It enters Puliuru Jian, who is leading Zhou’s campaign against Qi and is preoccupied with the prospect of victory and personal rewards.
• Back in the void, Chen Cuo hears the regrets of failed ascenders and learns from a newly arrived man in white, Tang Gongfang, that the place formed from the accumulated despair of cultivators who came close to ascending but failed. Tang identifies the chained figure as the Ancient God Tian Wu, whose past rampage left the gap almost empty.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo demonstrates greater command of the River Domain and trusts the Little Gourd enough to let it act. He remains cautious toward Tang Gongfang, whose account he does not accept without question.
• The long-haired man is revealed as a strategic planner who has manipulated events to make Chen Fangqing’s exceptional, hard-to-predict Fate more manageable. The shattered stone exposes the limits of his foresight and leaves him impressed—and disappointed—that he underestimated Chen.
• The Woman in Black challenges the long-haired man’s strategy, particularly the risk that the fall of Taihua could create a dangerous new variable. Their conversation shows both her insight and his confidence in long-term manipulation.
• Tang Gongfang introduces himself as a Han-era cultivator stranded after an incomplete Ascension. His explanation establishes the history of the void, though Chen Cuo remains wary.
• Qingfeng is startled by the order to teach Chen Fangqing the Nine Apertures Spirit-Anchoring Method but obeys. Puliuru Jian, meanwhile, remains focused on Zhou’s military advance, unaware of the Spirit Light’s arrival.

Significant themes

• The limits of calculation and control: The long-haired man’s carefully arranged plans are unsettled by Chen Fangqing’s unpredictable Fate.
• Regret and near-failure: The void embodies the anguish of those who came within one step of transcendence but could not complete it.
• Cleansing and resilience: Chen Cuo’s use of water symbolizes a force that can bend and endure while washing away corruption.
• Power, ambition, and consequence: The campaign against Qi, the possible destruction of Taihua, and the maneuvering among sects show how political and spiritual ambitions are intertwined.

Key plot points and events

• Tang Gongfang explains that speaking an Ancient God’s name can draw its attention. When he says Tian Wu, a bolt of annihilating lightning attacks him.
• He counters it with a current of energy drawn from the void, explaining that the rift is saturated with Tian Wu’s lingering aura, or breath of Pangu.
• Chen Cuo questions Tang Gongfang’s motives while quietly strengthening his connection to the River Domain. The connection is powerful but consumes his spirit, limiting how long he can maintain it.
• Tang says he is explaining himself because Chen helped him manifest briefly and because Chen carries the auras of several Ancient Gods. He describes how people in ancient times used those auras to understand the Dao and develop cultivation methods.
• Tang uses a resonance technique to reveal the auras clinging to Chen: those of Tian Wu, Wuzhiqi, Zhuyin, She Bishi, and Gou Mang. Each spoken name calls up more thunder.
• Tang suggests that many ancient gods now appear under different identities. Chen recognizes that Tang knows more than he has admitted and responds with a pointed remark; thunder then engulfs them both.
• The scene shifts to Great Hua Mountain in the Mortal World. Chen’s physical body sits before an icy gateway while allies guard him and the Qi-Observing True Person and others watch. A fissure suddenly spreads across the mist surrounding the mountain.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo remains wary of Tang despite listening closely. He balances gathering information with protecting himself, and realizes that his past encounters may have involved multiple Ancient Gods.
• Tang Gongfang presents himself as indebted and helpful, but his knowledge and the identities he hints at make Chen increasingly suspicious.
• Their conversation is a guarded exchange: Tang reveals lore and probes Chen’s history, while Chen tests Tang’s honesty and conceals his own calculations.
• At Mount Tai, Chen’s allies stand ready to protect his vulnerable physical body as events around the gateway escalate.

Significant themes

• Names and power: Speaking an Ancient God’s name can summon its attention and provoke a supernatural response.
• Hidden history and shifting identities: Ancient Gods may still be present in the world under unfamiliar names or forms.
• Knowledge as danger: Learning about divine forces can expose people to them, so information is both useful and hazardous.
• Vigilance and dependence: Chen draws on the River Domain for strength, but doing so consumes his spirit and leaves his body reliant on allies’ protection.

Plot points and events

• With the battle over, the mist around Great Hua Mountain begins to collapse. Nanmingzi explains that it was created by a powerful being Beyond the Mundane, not Qi-Observing True Person.
• Tu Nan Zi reports that the three injured disciples are safe and recovering, though Qiongfa Zi’s cultivation has suffered the most. He and Jiezhuzi prepare to confront the defeated allies of Island Master Beigong, who had conspired with beings Beyond the Mundane.
• The onlookers wonder who won the battle. Hanyanzi confidently declares that Master Soaring prevailed, despite Long Zhun’s doubts about the power that descended.
• The mountain’s apparent shattering turns out to be the mist’s collapse. Its hidden force is revealed to suppress Divine Abilities and transcendence. Two visitors from the Northern Kuru Continent, who had planned to escape with Ruan Ji, find themselves unable to use their powers.
• Lü Boxing falls from the sky, apparently protected by a venomous snake tied to a Supreme Venerable’s Spellcraft. His abilities return, and he rushes toward the weakened Chen Cuo, intending to attack.
• More danger arrives: hundreds of powerful Dao Soldiers appear, followed by the enormous Mount Zhongnan, seemingly transported to the area.

Character developments and interactions

• Nanmingzi admits that concern for his endangered fellow disciples made him act before investigating the mountain, though Tu Nan Zi teases that his account is not entirely honest.
• Tu Nan Zi’s confidence and anger come to the fore: he vows to punish the conspirators, while Jiezhuzi asks that two be spared for questioning.
• The Northern Kuru visitors shift from confidence to fear and decide the Central Plains are too dangerous to remain in.
• Lü Boxing, despite his apparent vulnerability, proves resourceful and opportunistic, using the snake’s power to recover and target Chen Cuo.
• Hanyanzi’s certainty that Master Soaring won contrasts with Long Zhun’s lingering concern about the battle’s supernatural force.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and deception: Great Hua Mountain’s apparent weakness conceals formidable defenses.
• Escalating danger: Each threat seems to be followed by a larger one, leaving no time for the characters to recover.
• Loyalty and retribution: Nanmingzi acts to protect his comrades, while Tu Nan Zi seeks justice against those who betrayed them.
• Uncertainty after victory: Even as the battle’s outcome seems clear, new arrivals and unexplained events threaten to overturn the situation.

Plot points and events

• Mount Zhongnan is suddenly transplanted from Qi into Great Zhou, shaking the Central Plains and terrifying Chang’an. Emperor Yuwen Yong explains that overseas cultivators carried out the move, with help from the Underworld Office after their own power proved insufficient.
• Yuwen Yong welcomes the upheaval: Zhongnan had once blocked Zhou’s eastern campaign, but now lies within his territory and can be brought under his control. He gathers the will of Great Zhou’s people and uses it to subdue the mountain and bind its secret realm to the surrounding land.
• In Kunlun, Lord Lü takes a jade ranking list of Second Realm disciples and visits Tingyi at Great Hua Mountain. He plans to rebuild the Chan Teaching after Qi falls, unite the Eight Sects, and invite descended cultivators to witness the ceremony and settle old grievances.
• Tingyi recognizes that Lord Lü’s plan could turn a personal matter into a major tribulation for the Eight Sects. She agrees to carry his message but asks for an invitation for Master Soaring, who travels with her. Lord Lü warns that the ceremony could expose Master Soaring to the Heavenly Dao’s erosion; Tingyi challenges him to wager on that.
• Elsewhere, Chen Cuo and Tang Gongfang withstand lightning summoned by speaking the names of Ancient Gods. Chen Cuo uses the storm to probe Tang Gongfang’s connection to Tian Wu and concludes that Tang has joined him.
• Tang reveals that he has merged with Tian Wu, explaining that a century of being trapped and unable to return left him desperate for escape. He argues that seeking the Dao is easier with another’s help. Chen rejects the justification, questions the fate of Tang’s companions who supposedly ascended with him, and shatters his manifestation with a punch.
• Tang’s essence flows into the chained figure, causing a massive, deathly door to appear behind it. The door begins to open as Chen prepares to confront what lies beyond.

Character developments and interactions

• Yuwen Yong appears calm and calculating. He turns a crisis into an advantage, using popular will to secure Great Zhou’s control of Zhongnan. He also intends to exploit the overseas cultivators while using them to balance the Central Plains Daoist Order.
• Wang Tianbing begins frightened by the earthquake but is reassured by the emperor. His concern shifts to the possible threat posed by the overseas cultivators.
• Lord Lü reveals a bold ambition to restore the Chan Teaching and reshape relations among the Eight Sects. His exchange with Tingyi shows that he anticipates conflict but believes the timing favors him.
• Tingyi is perceptive and politically shrewd. She sees the danger in Lord Lü’s scheme and protects Master Soaring’s interests, while remaining confident enough to challenge Lord Lü’s prediction.
• Tang Gongfang presents himself as sincere rather than deceptive, but his choice to merge with Tian Wu reflects desperation and a willingness to abandon his former path. He tries to persuade Chen that companionship is necessary for survival.
• Chen Cuo remains resolute and independent, testing Tang’s claims rather than accepting his appeal to sympathy. His final blow rejects Tang’s reasoning, but the opening door suggests a far greater danger is about to confront him.

Significant themes

• Power and political leverage: Yuwen Yong converts the relocation of a sacred mountain into an opportunity to strengthen his dynasty.
• Unity versus independence: Tang argues that the Dao is too difficult to pursue alone; Chen insists that help cannot replace taking one’s own steps.
• Ambition and strategic timing: Lord Lü seeks to exploit a moment when powerful outsiders cannot interfere, while Tingyi warns that others have similar designs.
• The cost of survival and compromise: Tang’s long confinement and lost hope help explain—but do not excuse—his alliance with Tian Wu.
• Uncertainty and looming catastrophe: Ancient powers, the fate of dynasties, and the deathly doorway all point to forces beyond the characters’ control.

Key plot points and events

• After the Three Sacrifice Gate opens, Chen Cuo’s nascent Dharma Form is swept into a strange place. A trace of his Incense Essence draws him into an apparently real Incense Realm, where countless newly formed Deities turn on him and torment his form.
• The realm folds into a building marked “Nightmare.” Chen realizes it is a piece of his own mind made real, and the Little Gourd swallows it.
• The escaped Incense Aura leads him to the River of History, where a mysterious Daoist uses the Sun, Moon, stars, mountains, and rivers to paint a scroll. The brushwork overwhelms Chen’s Dharma Form, and its ink spreads through the River of History.
• This disturbance shakes the Three Sacrifice Gate and threatens to corrupt it. Its imprisoned voices attempt to send out Father God’s True Breath, but the Little Gourd intercepts and swallows it. The prisoners suspect Lü and vow to retaliate.
• Chen’s true body awakens beneath Great Hua Mountain. His eyes now contain moving stars and affect anyone who looks into them. The Little Gourd and a dormant wisp of Pure Qi also stir within his inner world.
• Winds and the mountain’s Spirit Vein respond, while the Ancient God’s skeleton beneath Azure Dragon Ridge shudders. Jiezhuzi identifies the disturbance as coming from the skeleton, prompting the long-haired man to leave; Tingyi hints that Chen may be an Ancient God reborn. Lü Boxing stealthily approaches.
• In the Kunlun Secret Realm, Chen encounters a bookkeeper who offers him a Jade Slip containing the Nine Apertures Spirit-Anchoring Method, saying the method is meant for him.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo survives a succession of overwhelming revelations and trials. His Incense path exposes him to a mind-made realm, while the vision of the Daoist’s cosmic calligraphy appears to leave a profound mark on him. On waking, he displays a new, star-filled gaze and seems to have gained insight, though its nature is not yet explained.
• The Little Gourd acts independently and decisively, swallowing both the Nightmare structure and Father God’s True Breath—intervening in events far beyond Chen’s immediate control.
• Tu Nan Zi nearly falls under the influence of Chen’s eyes, but Jiezhuzi warns and pulls him back. Hui Shuo Zi interprets Chen’s ordeal as spiritual tempering.
• The imprisoned powers argue over the threat to the gate and blame Lü, while acknowledging that they are weakened and depend on the gate’s protection.
• Tingyi denies responsibility for the skeleton’s movement, then openly speculates that Chen is an Ancient God reborn. Lü Boxing approaches unseen.

Significant themes

• The danger of divided cultivation: Chen’s multiple paths—Qi Refining, visualization, and Incense—interact in unpredictable ways, exposing him to forces that can redirect or constrain his original Dao.
• Mind and reality: The Incense Realm feels real but is revealed as Chen’s state of mind made tangible, blurring the boundary between inner vision and external world.
• Fate, history, and creation: The Daoist’s scroll-making turns cosmic forces into art, and its ink alters the River of History, suggesting that creation can reshape the past and future.
• Hidden identities and shifting power: Chen’s awakening, the Ancient God’s response, and the factions’ suspicions point to deeper truths and conflicts still unfolding.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cuo’s embryonic Void and Reality Dharma Form shatters after he glimpses an old man drawing beside the River of Time. The shock destabilizes his thoughts and nearly destroys his Azure Lotus Incarnation.
• The Green-Robed Daoist Boy presents him with the Nine Apertures Spirit-Anchoring Method, as instructed by his master. At first Chen Cuo is too distracted to care, but the method’s cold, Dao-infused light steadies his mind.
• Chen Cuo recognizes the text as a body-cultivation method that links the body’s nine apertures to Heaven and Earth’s nine continents. It claims the Merit, Primordial Beginning, and Creation paths grew from the Pangu Path, then describes capturing and refining the sources of nine Heavenly Gods to remake the body as Pangu’s.
• Interested in the method’s possible relevance to his encounters with Ancient Gods and his own unusual incarnations, Chen Cuo absorbs and remembers it, but postpones studying it fully.
• The long-haired man arrives and attempts to draw Chen Cuo’s Azure Lotus Incarnation into his “Heaven and Earth in the Sleeve.” He says Chen Cuo may have the method, but cannot retain its memory for now, and begins to restrain that memory.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo responds to a crisis with clear-eyed calculation: he considers sacrificing the vulnerable Azure Lotus Incarnation to preserve his larger cultivation plan. The method’s revelations make him curious, but he remains cautious about powerful names and dangerous knowledge.
• The Green-Robed Daoist Boy initially hesitates, then risks acting to fulfill his master’s order. His presentation of the method unexpectedly helps stabilize Chen Cuo; he is visibly frightened by Chen Cuo’s strange, volatile power.
• The long-haired man appears to have anticipated events only loosely. Regretting the unforeseen consequences, he intervenes to keep Chen Cuo from retaining the method—setting up a direct conflict between his control and Chen Cuo’s wishes.

Significant themes

• Risk and sacrifice in cultivation: Chen Cuo weighs losing one incarnation against advancing his greater path.
• Knowledge as both aid and danger: The method calms Chen Cuo, but its claims and associated names provoke perilous disturbances.
• The origins and rivalry of Dao paths: The text challenges the assumed independence of major traditions by presenting them as branches of the Pangu Path.
• Fate and manipulation: The long-haired man describes events as a “casual move” complicated by coincidence, yet still acts to control what Chen Cuo can remember.

Plot and key events

• Chen Cuo refuses capture by the long-haired Beyond-the-Mundane master. He destroys his weakened Azure Lotus Incarnation in a burst of Five-Colored Divine Light, using a dangerous memory of his master to trigger the explosion.
• The blast breaks the man’s sleeve, marks his arm with azure traces, and shakes Hanging Peak. He repairs the damage, but recognizes that Chen Cuo’s inherited memories and Nine Apertures Method make him difficult to seize. He concludes Chen Cuo may be a “Human Tribulation” on his path to the Dao.
• At Great Hua Mountain, Nanmingzi, Hui Shuo Zi, Jiezhuzi, and Tu Nan Zi wait for the remaining Beyond-the-Mundane fog to clear, worried about the sect and Chen Cuo.
• A powerful current radiates from Chen Cuo’s physical body. It strengthens the thoughts and Spirit Light of those nearby, but can also overwhelm them: Tu Nan Zi’s Incarnation loses its human form until Hui Shuo Zi restores its balance.
• The surge reveals hidden observers and their hostile intentions. Hui Shuo Zi and the others form a protective barrier around Chen Cuo, while the onlookers reconsider their plans.
• Lü Boxing, unable to retreat after the surge exposes him, sends a slender snake toward the Mount Taihua disciples, betting that the Poison Venerable can exploit Chen Cuo’s weakened state.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo demonstrates resolve and ingenuity, sacrificing his Incarnation to escape capture. His power continues to affect others even after the confrontation.
• The long-haired master shifts from confidence to wary respect: he admits his miscalculation and sees Chen Cuo as a major obstacle, though he remains convinced his actions serve all beings.
• Tu Nan Zi is eager to return to the sect and benefits from Chen Cuo’s aura, but his unstable Incarnation reveals his lack of control. He also conceals that his physical body is incapacitated.
• Hui Shuo Zi acts protectively and sternly, stabilizing Tu Nan Zi and organizing the group’s defense.
• The hidden observers, including Long Zhun and Lü Boxing, are forced into the open. Long Zhun regrets risking hostility with Great Hua Mountain; Lü Boxing chooses to attack despite the danger.

Significant themes

• Power and its cost: Chen Cuo’s escape depends on a dangerous sacrifice, while contact with extraordinary forces can strengthen or damage those nearby.
• Memory and identity: Primordial memories and the act of holding powerful beings in one’s thoughts carry destructive consequences.
• Unintended influence: Chen Cuo’s struggle produces benefits and risks for allies and enemies alike.
• Caution and loyalty: The disciples prioritize guarding Chen Cuo, while outsiders weigh fear, ambition, and survival.

Key plot points and events

• Lü Boxing sneaks up on the Taihua disciples guarding Chen Cuo and launches a scarlet Corpse-Heavy Snake. With Great Hua Mountain’s Earth Veins available again, Hui Shuo Zi crushes the attack and pins Lü Boxing to the ground.
• Chen Cuo regains control of the violent will in his mind by synchronizing it with the Mind Horse, but the struggle leaves him dangerously exhausted. He realizes that his expanding will is accompanied by a deeper “decay,” and worries that his body and spirit may be nearing collapse.
• While recovering, Chen Cuo reflects on the Azure Lotus Incarnation’s destruction. He recognizes that the Kunlun Daoist’s sleeve manipulated space, time, and memory, and suspects that the Daoist gave him the Nine Apertures Spirit-Anchoring Method as part of a larger plan. Despite the loss of an Incarnation, Chen believes the experience and the cultivation method were worth gaining.
• Chen thanks the Taihua disciples for protecting him. Worried that the mountain gate has gone silent despite the sealing fog’s disappearance, they decide to go up the mountain together.
• After the White Jade Formation is dismissed, the scarlet snake reappears as though time has been rewound. Hui Shuo Zi freezes it with the Ice Soul, but its fleshy growth bursts, revealing a fearsome beast-faced figure whose green snakes’ hissing unleashes the calamity of Heavenly Human Decline.
• The Decline overwhelms Chen’s mind, body, will, and Fortune, turning his thoughts poisonous and corrupting the Mind Palace. Just as the crisis takes hold, the Little Gourd releases two streams of Pure Qi that halt the poison, while the Nine Apertures Spirit-Anchoring Method’s runes appear in Chen’s mind.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo regains mental control and gains new insight into spacetime and the unusual power behind the Kunlun Daoist’s methods. He remains committed to helping Taihua despite his depleted state.
• Hui Shuo Zi proves vigilant and protective, repeatedly cautioning the others against complacency and leading the group toward the mountain.
• Tu Nan Zi initially mocks the perceived threat and Hui Shuo Zi’s caution, but the danger’s return vindicates the senior brother’s concern.
• Jiezhuzi shares Hui Shuo Zi’s suspicion about the unresolved crisis and urges that Chen not be left behind.
• Lü Boxing is quickly overwhelmed, revealing that the attack’s true danger lies not in its apparent force but in the hidden power carried by the snake.
• The Kunlun Daoist, seen remotely, reveals that he anticipated the danger and deliberately gave Chen the book, though his full purpose remains unknown.

Significant themes

• Hidden danger and the limits of appearances: The seemingly weak snake survives as a threat through a delayed, time-reversed attack.
• Decline versus growth: Chen’s rising will is shadowed by exhaustion and decay, showing that power can carry the seed of collapse.
• Knowledge gained through loss: Chen treats the destruction of an Incarnation as worthwhile because it brought insight into spacetime and a valuable cultivation method.
• Fellowship and duty: The Taihua disciples regard one another as family, and Chen feels bound to return to the mountain despite his weakened condition.
• Uncertain motives and larger schemes: The Kunlun Daoist’s help may be part of a deeper design, leaving Chen to learn from it while remaining wary.

Key plot points and events

• After Chen Cuo defeats the slender snake, it vanishes, leaving behind a deadly aura of decay. His body shrivels, black blood pours from his orifices, and the blood scorches the ground.
• Nanmingzi tries to reach him, but Hui Shuo Zi stops him: the symptoms resemble the Five Declines of Heaven and Man, and exposure could be fatal. Hui Shuo Zi wraps Chen Cuo in white cloth to contain the aura and decides to take him back to the mountain for help.
• Chen Cuo recognizes the attack as an Ancient God’s power, though it seems different from Tian Wu’s. The venomous aura overwhelms his usual techniques, but the Little Gourd and two streams of Pure Qi keep it under control.
• He discovers that the danger resonates with the Nine Apertures Spirit-Anchoring Method and uses it to draw the aura into his body. A mark forms on his left hand and becomes a pattern of two intertwined serpents, indicating that he has anchored a spirit in an aperture.
• As the power spreads, Chen Cuo’s body begins to heal and strengthen. His bloodline stirs, and he realizes the method may let him harness Ancient God power. He also sees that completing it will require an Ancient God’s True Blood, which he may be able to obtain from his White Lotus Avatar.
• His body grows dangerously hot as the power builds. The brothers carry him to a mist-shrouded cave; Hui Shuo Zi takes him inside while the others stand guard.

Character developments

• Chen Cuo shows composure under extreme danger and quickly turns an attack into an opportunity for cultivation. He begins to understand the Nine Apertures Method and how it might connect to the stages of cultivation, while recognizing that the technique is incomplete.
• Hui Shuo Zi acts decisively to protect Chen Cuo and the others, containing the dangerous aura and prioritizing a return to the mountain.
• Nanmingzi shows strong concern for his junior brother, willing to risk contamination to protect him, but accepts Hui Shuo Zi’s warning.
• Tu Nan Zi responds to the alarming symptoms with blunt humor, suggesting they freeze Chen Cuo before his body collapses.

Significant themes

• Danger transformed into opportunity: Chen Cuo uses the Ancient God’s attack as fuel for a new cultivation method.
• The body as a path to power: The Nine Apertures Method links physical transformation, cultivation, and the acquisition of divine abilities.
• Knowledge and its limits: Chen Cuo reasons through conflicting theories about bodily apertures, while the method’s missing final stage reveals how incomplete and rare such knowledge is.
• Brotherhood and protection: Chen Cuo’s companions risk themselves and act together to save him, even though they do not know he is secretly changing.

Character interactions

• Nanmingzi rushes to Chen Cuo, but Hui Shuo Zi physically blocks him and explains the mortal danger of the decay aura.
• The brothers cooperate to transport Chen Cuo, with Hui Shuo Zi taking charge and Tu Nan Zi commenting on his worsening condition.
• Chen Cuo’s internal reasoning contrasts with the group’s concern: while they believe he is near collapse, he is using the crisis to anchor a spirit and cultivate.

Key plot points and events

• Hui Shuo Zi enters the Great Hua Secret Realm and finds it unnaturally silent. The mortals and other living things below are all asleep, while the realm’s usual bustle has vanished. He suspects the Underworld Office has infiltrated during the attacks from Beyond the Mundane.
• He reaches Daoyinzi’s Bamboo Abode and finds Yan Yin Zi meditating. Yan Yin Zi has forcibly advanced to the Fifth Step, briefly losing control of his new power, and admits he has not yet mastered his abilities.
• Hui Shuo Zi asks Yan Yin Zi to help Chen Cuo, who was ambushed and appeared to be suffering the Five Declines of Heaven and Man. Yan Yin Zi says he cannot treat it himself and brings them to see Hui Shuo Zi’s Master, the sect’s only hope.
• Bound in cloth, Chen Cuo gradually recovers. The mark on his left hand draws the remaining poison from his body as his blood and bones continue to transform. He realizes his blood’s lead-and-mercury quality may be linked to a hidden innate power—possibly an ancient bloodline or the legacy of Hou Jing’s Bloodline Way.
• Chen Cuo’s power suddenly erupts, breaking the cloth bindings. Yan Yin Zi contains the surge with a shell of sword energy and notices that Chen Cuo no longer shows signs of the Five Declines.
• Chen Cuo recognizes their destination as the temple dedicated to Red Essence Immortal, Great Hua Mountain’s founder. Deathly air hangs around the temple and its grounds.

Character developments

• Hui Shuo Zi remains composed but is deeply troubled by the Secret Realm’s lifelessness and the threat to the sect. He trusts his junior brother to help hold the sect together.
• Yan Yin Zi has reached a new cultivation level, but his advancement was rushed and his control is incomplete. He is capable enough to contain Chen Cuo’s outbreak, yet admits his limitations and seeks help from his senior.
• Chen Cuo recovers from the ambush and appears to overcome the Five Declines. His body is undergoing a further transformation, and he begins to suspect that his extraordinary strength comes from a deep, inherited source.

Significant themes

• Life versus death: The Secret Realm’s sleeping inhabitants and creeping deathly aura turn a once-vibrant sanctuary into an ominous place.
• The cost of forced advancement: Yan Yin Zi’s breakthrough brings great power but poor control, suggesting that progress without a sound foundation is dangerous.
• Hidden inheritance and identity: Chen Cuo’s changing body prompts questions about his origins and the ancient forces carried in bloodlines.
• Crisis and mutual reliance: Even powerful cultivators face limits, and the sect’s survival depends on its members seeking help from one another.

Character interactions

• Hui Shuo Zi greets Yan Yin Zi respectfully and asks him to examine Chen Cuo. Their conversation reveals both the sect’s emergency and Yan Yin Zi’s concern for the injured junior.
• Yan Yin Zi restrains Chen Cuo’s sudden outburst with sword energy, then marvels that the signs of the Five Declines have disappeared.
• Chen Cuo remains largely cut off from the others while wrapped in cloth, but his growing awareness lets him sense their safety and reflect on the changes within himself.

Key events

• Chen Cuo emerges from the cloth having overcome the Five Declines of Heaven and Man on his own. Yan Yin Zi marvels at his recovery and says he can now visit their master without that burden.
• Chen asks why the Great Hua Secret Realm has become unnaturally quiet and filled with the breath of death. Yan explains that several forces conspired against the sect, including wicked cultivators from Beyond the Mundane and the Underworld Office.
• The Underworld Office used its Central Origin Knot—a treasure formed from generations of Ghost Festival customs and ancestral offerings—to gather the Secret Realm’s mortal warmth, turning it into a realm of death.
• A Ghost Gate manifests and brings forth shadows of Chen’s past lives and hardships. Yan Yin Zi intervenes, revealing a series of striking former identities before declaring his sword belongs only to Yan Yin Zi. His Sword Light destroys the gate.
• Chen and Hui Shuo Zi enter the Daoist Temple after hearing their master, Daoyinzi, summon them. They find him frail and flickering, and the chapter ends as they take in his alarming condition.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo shows new strength and self-reliance by surviving the Five Declines without help. He recognizes the figures summoned by the Ghost Gate as images of Chen Fangqing’s past, but does not let them claim him.
• Yan Yin Zi acts protectively toward Chen and displays formidable power. His succession of past personas hints at a colorful life before he joined the sect, though Chen chooses not to question him.
• Hui Shuo Zi shares the disciples’ concern for Daoyinzi and recognizes that the master’s condition is serious.
• Daoyinzi, though weak and exhausted, remains intent on telling his disciples something important.

Significant themes

• Identity and self-determination: Yan rejects the identities and histories that surface around him, affirming the person he chose to become.
• The power of collective belief and tradition: The Central Origin Knot embodies how rituals and offerings accumulated across generations can become a supernatural force.
• Sacrifice and decline: The sect’s ancestral lamp-spirits were not stolen; they extinguished themselves to sustain the Secret Realm, suggesting the cost of preserving it.
• Threatened inheritance: With the Secret Realm devastated and Daoyinzi gravely weakened, the disciples face an uncertain future for their sect.

Key plot points

• Chen Cuo and Hui Shuo Zi find their master, Daoyinzi, trapped behind layers of fractured space. They fear someone has attacked him, but he insists his predicament stems from old grievances and tells them to focus on cultivation.
• Yan Yin Zi reveals that Daoyinzi’s suffering is connected to the Great Hua Secret Realm and an earlier scheme. He also confirms rumors that Great Hua Mountain’s fortune is fading: rival Daoist sects helped bring about its crisis, though their identities are left for later.
• Yan Yin Zi explains that a sect’s foundations are its people, its inheritance, and its Secret Realm. Great Hua’s first two foundations remain, but its Secret Realm has nearly collapsed.
• He describes how Peach Paradises and Secret Realms are formed. A Secret Realm develops through the Dao: cultivators bring the laws they have realized into a Peach Paradise, represented by Dao suns. A Blessed Land becomes a Grotto-Heaven only when it contains a heart-moon—the cultivator’s own understanding—allowing it to sustain itself.
• Great Hua’s Secret Realm was once a Grotto-Heaven created by its founding patriarch, Patriarch Red Essence. After the Ancestral Dragon severed Heaven and Earth and Red Essence vanished, the realm lost its heart-moon and began to decline.
• Daoyinzi reveals that he sealed his Life-Bound Sword and attained the sixth step, using his own Blessed Land to keep the sect’s failing Grotto-Heaven alive.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo reacts with concern for Daoyinzi and asks incisive questions about the Secret Realm. His recent cultivation and Ancient God’s aura let him grasp the deeper implications of Yan Yin Zi’s explanation.
• Hui Shuo Zi shares Chen Cuo’s worry and vows that they cannot simply ignore their master’s troubles.
• Daoyinzi remains protective and urges his disciples not to be distracted from cultivation. Despite his frail condition, he accepts that they should learn the truth and reveals the sacrifice he made for the sect.
• Yan Yin Zi acts as the reluctant messenger, explaining the conspiracy and the Secret Realm’s nature while grieving over his senior brother’s condition. He defers to Daoyinzi before disclosing the full story.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and loyalty: Daoyinzi surrendered his outside ties and sealed his sword to preserve Great Hua.
• Inheritance versus personal insight: Following established paths can create a powerful Blessed Land, but only an individual’s own understanding—the heart-moon—can make it a lasting Grotto-Heaven.
• Sect survival and betrayal: Great Hua’s crisis is not simply fate; it stems from deliberate actions by rival sects and the loss of its spiritual foundation.
• The Dao made tangible: The chapter links cultivation to the creation of worlds, with Dao suns embodying realized laws and a heart-moon completing them.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• In the Kunlun Secret Realm, Duke Lü explains that the Eight Sects’ Secret Realms originated when immortals lost their Three Flowers and Five Qi during the Campaign Against Zhou and had to cultivate anew in the Mortal World. Their newly formed Grotto-Heavens became the foundations of sects. A visitor questions his account, citing another witness’s version, but Duke Lü is interrupted by a message: a jade scroll bearing many names has cracked, suggesting trouble with the Great Hua Secret Realm and its defenders. He also dismisses Zhou Dingyi’s request, promising Zhongnan can recover after five hundred years.
• In Great Hua’s Founder's Daoist Temple, Daoyinzi reveals that the Secret Realm’s Heart Moon has faded. After outside support was cut off and its vitality stolen, the Realm’s foundations became too damaged to save by ordinary means.
• Daoyinzi intends to merge himself with the Grotto-Heaven, using his Blessed Land method to keep the Secret Realm alive for fifty years. He passes leadership to Yan Yin Zi and warns him to abandon reckless habits.
• Chen Cuo and Hui Shuo Zi refuse to accept Daoyinzi’s sacrifice without exploring alternatives. Yan Yin Zi explains that the sect had hoped to restore the Realm using the Five Elements and the methods of Primordial Beginning and True Cultivation. Chen Cuo realizes that the Five Elements he gathered may be part of this plan, but Daoyinzi insists the crisis is too advanced and Chen’s cultivation level too low.
• Daoyinzi outlines three possible solutions:
  1. Best: Restore the Realm by having someone reach the Seventh Step in either Primordial Beginning or True Cultivation and replace one of its Dao Suns.
  2. Middle: Hold the Realm together with a power capable of stabilizing a world, such as an Ancient God’s ability or a supreme Treasure.
  3. Worst but fastest: Find a Heart Moon to illuminate and temporarily stabilize the Realm—though the required person is exceptionally rare, and the Realm would have to yield its essence for another to absorb.

Character developments and interactions

• Daoyinzi accepts that saving the Secret Realm may cost him his life. His calm explanations and succession plans reveal both his devotion to Taihua and his determination to preserve its lineage.
• Chen Cuo moves from shock to urgent resistance, refusing to treat his master’s sacrifice as inevitable. He feels guilty that his Five Elements may be connected to the crisis, but sets that aside to seek a solution. The Ancient God’s remains and Bone Eye in Dream Marsh occur to him as possible means of stabilization.
• Hui Shuo Zi supports Chen’s challenge and even offers to take Daoyinzi’s place, showing his loyalty and willingness to shoulder responsibility.
• Yan Yin Zi is reluctant to inherit leadership and deeply pained by Daoyinzi’s decision, but explains the sect’s earlier restoration plans and is entrusted with guiding Great Hua after Daoyinzi is gone.
• In the opening scene, Duke Lü confidently defends his firsthand history while the visitor challenges it, establishing that accounts of the past may conflict.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and succession: Daoyinzi’s willingness to merge with the Secret Realm reflects the burden borne by those protecting an institution across generations.
• Preserving tradition amid decline: The Secret Realm is not merely a location but the foundation of Taihua’s power and continuity.
• Hope versus inevitability: Daoyinzi sees the collapse as unavoidable, while Chen insists that inherited methods and new encounters may still offer a way forward.
• History and uncertain truth: Duke Lü’s account highlights how events become distorted over time—and how even eyewitness testimony can be disputed.

Key events

• Yan Yin Zi explains the sect’s three possible ways to save Great Hua Mountain’s collapsing Secret Realm. The last-resort plan is to bring in another cultivator’s Heart Moon, but doing so could hand that outsider control of the realm.
• He distinguishes a Dao Sun, which embodies a cultivator’s understanding of the Dao and gives a Secret Realm order, from a Heart Moon, which manifests the True Spirit and nurtures the realm. A Dao Sun can be restored if destroyed; a Heart Moon’s destruction kills its owner.
• Yan Yin Zi demonstrates how a holder of a Secret Realm’s Authority can command its power. He also reveals that the sect’s Patriarch left two Dao Suns behind, but not his Heart Moon—the loss of that central core is why the realm is collapsing.
• Daoyinzi adds that a Seventh Step Heart Moon contains Heaven-Opening Pure Qi, an exceptionally rare power. Both elders stress that borrowing one would be dangerous and could jeopardize the sect’s legacy.
• As the explanation appears to settle the matter, Chen Cuo reveals a bright moon above himself, surrounded by gray mist, clear wind, and auspicious clouds. The moon answers the faint image in the Secret Realm’s sky. He asks whether it qualifies as a Heart Moon and Pure Qi.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo listens closely, connecting the elders’ account of Secret Realm Authority to his own experience with the River Domain and Dream Marsh. Rather than being discouraged by the risks, he realizes he may already possess what the sect needs and demonstrates it.
• Yan Yin Zi patiently explains the distinctions between Dao Suns, Heart Moons, and Secret Realm Authority, while emphasizing the danger of surrendering control to an outsider.
• Daoyinzi supplements the explanation and warns that a true Seventh Step Heart Moon is too valuable to reveal casually. His assumption that Chen Cuo has been persuaded is overturned by Chen’s sudden display.
• Hui Shuo Zi reacts with awe to the White Jade Seal and falls quiet as the elders explain why the proposed solutions are so difficult.

Significant themes

• Risk, trust, and responsibility: Saving the sect may require a dangerous bargain, but accepting help could cost the elders control of their home.
• Inner nature and cultivation: A Dao Sun reflects understanding of the Dao, while a Heart Moon embodies the self and its life-giving spirit.
• Hidden power and revelation: Chen Cuo’s final demonstration suggests that he possesses a rare, potentially decisive power he had not previously revealed.

Plot and events

• Chen Cuo’s Heart Moon appears as a bright moon wrapped in Pure Qi. Its light briefly shows the gathered cultivators visions of a mountain town, a great river, and immense figures—and stirs their cultivation bottlenecks.
• Hui Shuo Zi is shaken by the moon’s apparent power. Yan Yin Zi recognizes a connection to an earlier experience in Southern Chen, but discovers his memories of it are hazy and suspects they were altered.
• Daoyinzi explains that Chen Cuo’s Heart Moon instinctively tried to expand into his body, which is an Incarnation of the Great Hua Secret Realm. This interaction enables a third method of action: Daoyinzi channels white flames through the sky, driving away the Secret Realm’s cold, deathly qi and breaking an unseen influence.
• The Secret Realm revives: its sleepers wake, and life returns to its forests and rivers.
• In Chang’an, Yuwen Yong feels the Central Origin Knot crack. He realizes the damage threatens his campaign against Northern Qi and turns his attention toward Great Hua Mountain. Dugu Xin warns him not to complicate matters, but Yuwen says there is no turning back.
• Daoyinzi cautions that the Secret Realm is still collapsing from within. He conceals the temple’s Cause-and-Effect traces and warns Chen Cuo that the Pure Qi must remain secret. He hints that Taihua’s future depends on surviving the coming period.
• Daoyinzi gathers the moonlight around the temple and directs it toward the portrait of the founding patriarch.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo learns that his Heart Moon can affect the Secret Realm and may offer a path to greater power. Daoyinzi’s cryptic warning makes him suspect that others’ memories of Pure Qi have been tampered with.
• Daoyinzi reveals both his willingness to use his Secret-Realm Incarnation as part of the method and his concern for Chen Cuo and Mount Taihua. He takes control of the crisis while guarding its secret.
• Yan Yin Zi shifts from delight at Chen Cuo’s achievement to alarm over his missing memories, recognizing that a larger hidden event may be involved.
• Hui Shuo Zi is unsettled by the moon’s influence and looks to his fellow cultivators for an explanation, but their reactions deepen his uncertainty.
• Yuwen Yong and Dugu Xin clash over whether to risk further complications: Dugu urges restraint, while Yuwen insists the campaign cannot be abandoned.

Significant themes

• Power and peril: Chen Cuo’s breakthrough offers great promise but attracts danger for him and his sect.
• Memory and concealment: Altered recollections and Daoyinzi’s precautions suggest powerful forces are hiding the truth.
• Fragile recovery: The Secret Realm’s revival is only a surface-level victory; its deeper collapse remains unresolved.
• Ambition and necessity: Yuwen’s military campaign continues despite the damage to the mechanism supporting it.

Key plot points and events

• Under the Heart Moon’s light, the founder’s portrait comes alive, revealing an ancient power of time. Chen Cuo recognizes that Hui Shuo Zi’s freezing aura also derives from time.
• Daoyinzi transmits to Chen Cuo the formulas for Heart Moon Illuminating the Secret Realm, which Chen must use to avert danger. He explains that the Temple and portrait form the Secret Realm’s heart, so the moon must first illuminate the painting.
• Daoyinzi draws a curtain of night around Chen Cuo, leaving the Bright Moon imprinted on it. As the moon settles into place, the Secret Realm begins to rumble and change.
• Daoyinzi warns that the process will draw tribulations. Though the failed conspirator from the Daoist Order is unlikely to attack again immediately, other hidden forces may intervene. Larger upheavals may also be coming from heaven and earth and the mortal Dynasty.
• Daoyinzi gives Hui Shuo Zi a White Jade Command Token and sends him to bring the other disciples into the Secret Realm for safety. Hui’s connection to the realm deepens through the token.
• Daoyinzi and Yan Yin Zi discuss the cost of relying on Chen Cuo’s Heart Moon. Daoyinzi insists Chen will not be bound to the Secret Realm forever: Taihua’s elders should guide the next generation, not constrain it.
• As the Secret Realm’s transformation nears, a rift opens in the southern sky and armed soldiers begin entering.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo moves from uncertainty to focused understanding, quickly mastering the transmitted method. He endures the painful process of joining his Heart Moon to the Secret Realm.
• Daoyinzi reveals both resolve and vulnerability: he has long restrained himself out of concern for the sect, but now hopes to pass its future to younger disciples. He prepares to recover and eventually pursue his own path.
• Hui Shuo Zi shows concern for the sect’s conspirators and wider dangers. Daoyinzi recognizes his sense of responsibility, cautions him not to let it impede cultivation, and entrusts him with protecting the younger disciples.
• Yan Yin Zi promises to defend the Secret Realm and take responsibility for the sect, while joking about his gambling-themed Dao Thought. Daoyinzi urges him to let go of an old fixation; Yan’s concern that Chen might be trapped serving the Secret Realm is met with reassurance.

Significant themes

• Inheritance without imprisonment: The elders must guide Taihua’s future while allowing the next generation—especially Chen Cuo—to follow its own path.
• Duty and personal cultivation: Hui Shuo Zi and Yan Yin Zi shoulder responsibility for the sect, while Daoyinzi warns that concern for others can also hinder one’s own progress.
• Change, danger, and opportunity: The Heart Moon’s arrival may reverse the sect’s decline, but transformation invites tribulation and exposes hidden enemies.
• Interdependence across generations: The Secret Realm contains the accumulated wisdom and repairs of its predecessors, making its renewal both a personal trial for Chen Cuo and a collective turning point for Taihua.

Plot and key events

• Chen Cuo enters the Great Hua Secret Realm’s Dao Sun through his Heart Moon and experiences the Grotto-Heaven’s creation from the perspective of a fragment of Patriarch Red Essence’s will.
• He witnesses the world form from chaos: the patriarch’s will creates heaven and earth, and the rising Dao Sun’s Five Qi and Three Flowers establish the world’s laws and bring life into being.
• Chen Cuo realizes the vision reveals more than the Grotto-Heaven’s history. It exposes a method for refining Grotto-Heavens, rooted in Great Hua Mountain’s Fivefold Restrictions and the art of refining Life-Bound Treasures. He wonders whether he could use it to refine Dream Marsh itself.
• As he studies the Dao Sun, centuries pass within the Grotto-Heaven. When a second Crimson Sun appears, the world’s balance collapses into catastrophe. The suffering of its inhabitants gathers into a demonic shadow, which is subdued beneath a Five-Element mountain.
• A song and the second sun’s radiance restore clarity and order. A Jade Capital Heavenly Palace appears, revealing the patriarch’s cultivation method: the Five Elements Transcendence Art of Refining the Form, Casting Off the Shell, and Ascending to Immortality.
• Chen Cuo recognizes that this art’s “Golden Core” is connected to the Pangu Path’s Heaven-and-Earth Form, and that the method contains Return to Truth principles shared by several Heavenly Daos. The connections raise troubling questions about how the patriarch knew principles associated with later paths, and whether cultivation can change after Ascension.
• As Chen Cuo’s consciousness turns inward, it forms a Bright Moon. Far away, in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, the sky splits and a waning moon descends. A laughing figure declares that the fallen immortal has finally fallen into their hands.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo advances from observing the vision to grasping its deeper meaning. His knowledge of Dream Marsh, the Little Gourd, and Great Hua Mountain’s techniques lets him infer that the patriarch’s creation method may be used to refine an entire Grotto-Heaven. He also gains a rare opportunity to study the Cultivation Way’s underlying method.
• Patriarch Red Essence, though present only through a fragment of will and the legacy embedded in the Dao Suns, is revealed as a creator of the Grotto-Heaven and a cultivator whose methods unite ideas from multiple Daoist paths.
• The Grotto-Heaven’s inhabitants move from fearful, fragile existence to flourishing life, then face catastrophe when the second sun disrupts their world. Their collective thoughts help form the demonic shadow.
• The chapter’s final scene introduces an unseen pursuer or captor confronting a fallen immortal; the identity of both remains unresolved.

Significant themes

• Creation and cultivation mirror each other: building a Grotto-Heaven resembles refining a body, while the world’s laws reflect the cultivator’s own practice.
• Knowledge across lineages: apparently distinct Daoist paths share deeper principles, though their relationship and origin remain mysterious.
• Order and upheaval: the Dao Sun sustains life and establishes rules, but a second sun destabilizes that order, making conflict and hardship catalysts for change.
• Perception and awakening: Chen Cuo risks being overwhelmed by the patriarch’s will but awakens through his connection to Dream Marsh and his own accumulated understanding.
• The limits of transformation: Chen Cuo’s questions about Ascension suggest that a cultivator’s path may become fixed at its highest stages.

Summary

• A colossal Green-Robed Man attacks the Broken Moon, a ruined Grotto-Heaven whose master is dead. He floods it with blood and sends countless snake-like Incarnations toward its ruined Palace. A ring of black fire—apparently the remains of the former master’s Primordial Spirit—keeps them back, but is slowly shrinking. The Green-Robed Man plans to refine the Moon and turn its body into an immortal Incarnation.
• After receiving a message that the Lu Clan of Kunlun will hold a Fengshan Ceremony to proclaim a True Dragon Emperor, the Green-Robed Man realizes they want to use his Fortune. He decides to exploit their ceremony to advance his own plans.
• Meanwhile, Chen Cuo awakens to find his Mind Thought merged with the Great Hua Secret Realm. He can perceive the entire realm and sees that it has stabilized: its cracks are closing, and the Soldiers who once threatened Great Hua Mountain have been petrified and suppressed. He recognizes this as a major change to the region’s fate.
• Chen Cuo senses that half a month has passed since the Bright Moon rose. Daoyinzi tells him his awareness is now joined to the Grotto-Heaven, so he cannot yet return to his body; he should use the time to understand the realm. Tu Nan Zi worries that Chen Cuo may not be back in time for an approaching threat.

Character developments and interactions

• The Green-Robed Man grows more ambitious after gaining the Broken Moon, shifting from secluded cultivation to manipulating the Lu Clan’s plans for his benefit.
• Chen Cuo has gained vast awareness through his merger with the Secret Realm, but remains physically unable to return.
• Daoyinzi calmly guides Chen Cuo and reassures him about his unusual state.
• Tu Nan Zi, alarmed by the prospect of an imminent attack, questions Daoyinzi about whether Chen Cuo can respond in time.

Significant themes

• Power and corruption: the Green-Robed Man seeks to cleanse and remake the Broken Moon through blood and force.
• Fate and political maneuvering: the Lu Clan and the Green-Robed Man both seek to use Fortune and ceremony to advance their ambitions.
• Transformation and consequence: Chen Cuo’s merger changes both his perception and the fate of Great Hua Mountain.
• Urgency and uncertainty: the fifteen-day gap and Chen Cuo’s inability to return raise concern about the approaching threat.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cuo awakens to find that half a month has passed. The Heart Moon has risen over the Great Hua Secret Realm, linking his mind to the entire Grotto-Heaven and giving him near-omnipresent influence within it.
• Unable to control his thoughts at first, Chen Cuo unintentionally fills the realm with disorienting mist and sand. The disturbance throws disciples, townspeople, and even animals into confusion and despair. Daoyinzi warns him that, under the Heart Moon, his thoughts can alter the realm and affect countless lives. Chen Cuo reins himself in, stopping the mist, though its effects leave subtle traces in the landscape.
• Reflecting on the power of a single idea, Chen Cuo’s insight settles into the Grotto-Heaven as a quiet influence. Daoyinzi and Yan Yin Zi sense it; Daoyinzi gains a surge in vigor, essence, and spirit from understanding it.
• Daoyinzi cautions Chen Cuo that his mind is now the Heart Moon while his physical body remains asleep. The power is a major opportunity but risks destabilizing his foundation, so he must remain grounded and eventually return his thoughts to his body.
• Chen Cuo considers how the Heart Moon’s capacity for change can renew—or ruin—established orders. This reflection triggers a vision of a growing bronze-colored tree and helps him form an Azure Lotus, bringing his mind and body into greater alignment.
• Chen Cuo rises, and the force of his presence stabilizes Tu Nan Zi’s dark Incarnation. He also realizes that Daoyinzi’s growing power may soon strain the Grotto-Heaven’s limits.
• Daoyinzi reveals that a formidable figure is watching Chen Cuo: a martial sage, founder of the Military School, destroyer of a dynasty’s True Dragon, founder of a dynastic bloodline, and fellow disciple of Great Hua’s ancestor.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cuo moves from bewilderment and accidental recklessness toward greater self-control and insight. He begins to understand the Heart Moon as both transformative authority and a dangerous responsibility.
• Daoyinzi acts as mentor, explaining the risks of Chen Cuo’s new state and drawing on his own experience of taking a shortcut through his bond with the Secret Realm. Though his power is nearing a dangerous threshold, he remains resolute.
• Yan Yin Zi recognizes the significance of Chen Cuo’s insight but returns to his ordinary disguise and activities.
• Chuiyunzi and Xi Ran initially suspect an attack; Xi Ran’s confidence in Great Hua’s strength contrasts with the chaos that soon overwhelms them both.
• Tu Nan Zi realizes Chen Cuo can stabilize his Incarnation and becomes eager for his help.
• Qiongfa Zi and other disciples respond to the sudden upheaval with alarm, but cannot identify its source.

Significant themes

• Power and responsibility: Chen Cuo’s thoughts can reshape the Grotto-Heaven, making self-restraint essential.
• Change and decline: The Heart Moon represents change that can revive a stagnant order or plunge it into disorder; fixed laws alone cannot prevent decay.
• Foundations and shortcuts: Sudden advancement offers great opportunity but can weaken one’s basis unless followed by humility and patient, fundamental work.
• Mind and world: Inner states leave lasting marks on the external world, shaping both the landscape and the lives within it.