Chapter Summaries

• Ziling’s plea: Ziling tells Situ Ping that she is the daughter of an Emei Sword Immortal and a Heavenly Fox. Her mother is about to face a heavenly tribulation, and Ziling believes Ping—born at four auspicious yang times—can help her survive. She warns him not to tell his parents because she believes Ping’s mother is a Wutai Sword Immortal, and Emei and Wutai are bitter enemies.
• Ping discovers the supernatural: Ping laughs off the claim that his tofu-selling mother is a Sword Immortal. To prove her story, Ziling makes a table float, suspends Ping in the air, and demonstrates a flying sword. Ping is thrilled by the magic, though Ziling is offended when he calls her mother a “fox spirit.”
• A misunderstanding about fate: Ziling says helping her mother could lead Ping to join Emei and begins to explain that she and Ping are destined to be married. Before she can finish, Ping assumes fate requires them to duel as representatives of Emei and Wutai. He imagines a melodramatic ending in which he saves Ziling’s mother, she marries him, then kills him to avenge the sect feud. He denounces this as the work of “thieving heavens.” Ziling clarifies that their sects’ conflict is far larger and older than either of them could settle.
• Ziling’s proposal: Ziling argues that leaving Wutai for Emei would mean turning from evil to righteousness, describing Wutai practitioners who commit atrocities to make swords. She reveals that she has a twin sister and that both sisters are destined to marry Ping. After helping their mother, all three are meant to join Emei. Ziling proposes that they be married in name only, remain chaste under Emei’s rules, and become companions in cultivation. Ping is overwhelmed and goes home without answering.
• Character developments and interactions: Ping shifts from disbelief to fascination, but his romantic inexperience and love of heroic stories make him misread Ziling’s hints. Ziling moves from anxious pleading to earnest persuasion, while struggling with embarrassment about their supposed marriage. Their exchanges are comic and awkward, yet reveal her dependence on Ping and his bewilderment at being drawn into a supernatural destiny. At home, Ping studies his parents—who are sorting beans—and cannot reconcile them with Ziling’s description of Sword Immortals. His parents, preoccupied by their own troubling divinations, do not notice his confusion.
• Themes: The chapter plays with the tension between fate and personal choice, using Ping’s complaint about “thieving heavens” for comedy while raising questions about whether destiny should be obeyed. It also contrasts heroic romantic conventions with reality, and introduces the conflict between religious sects, moral allegiance, and inherited hostility.

Key plot points and events

• Situ Ping hesitates to help Ziling’s mother, Lady Baoxiang, survive her tribulation. He worries that aiding the Emei Sect would betray his Wutai affiliation and his parents, though he doubts the accusations against his tofu-selling parents.
• Ziling eventually abducts him to Turtle-Fishing Rock and begs him to help. His parents hurry after him, but Emei disciples Zhuge Jingwo and Lin Su’e block their way. They fight for a day and night; the parents are no match, and Zhuge lets them through only after Lady Baoxiang survives.
• Ziling urges Situ Ping to join Emei and warns him against Wutai. He refuses, insisting he knows only that his parents are tofu sellers and wants to go home. Perfected One Dafang, Divine Camel Yixiu, overhears and spirits him away, despite the Emei Sword Immortals’ inability to stop him.
• Situ Xingming and Jiang Sangu learn that Situ Ping is safe but are furious at the Emei Sect. They retreat to cultivate and prepare powerful treasures. Years later, they pursue Lin Su’e to Mount Buxu, where they and Yellow Swollen Daoist besiege Xiao Shijiu during her tribulation. Xiong Manniang, Sai Feiqiong, and Luo Ziyan arrive and drive them off, helping Xiao Shijiu survive.
• The story then shifts to new trouble at Mount Heng: Luo Ziyan’s disciples report that Yue Wen is trapped by the wicked Qin siblings. Xiong Manniang accompanies Luo Ziyan, but Shi Feiyang has already defeated them.
• Xiao Shijiu later thanks her rescuers and raises the old Situ Ping affair with the Emei Sect. She plans to confront Emei over the danger Lin Su’e faces and the Sect’s responsibility. Xiong Manniang and Luo Ziyan offer to accompany her; Shi Feiyang and Yue Wen decide to go as well.

Character developments and interactions

• Situ Ping shows a strong sense of filial duty and independence. Rather than accept Ziling’s account of sectarian morality, he judges by what he has personally seen and refuses to be drawn into Emei’s plans.
• Ziling acts out of desperation for her mother, but her attempt to steer Situ Ping toward Emei deepens the conflict. Her appeal to their destined marriage only increases his frustration.
• Situ Xingming and Jiang Sangu move from anxiety over their missing child to enduring anger at Emei. Their later pursuit of Lin Su’e turns the old abduction into a lasting feud.
• Yixiu intervenes because he despises Emei’s handling of the affair. Taking Situ Ping ultimately gives the boy a powerful mentor: Yixiu and his wife, Fairy Han, accept him as their direct disciple, and he helps reconcile the couple.
• Xiong Manniang is pleased when Shi Feiyang publicly recognizes her obscure achievements and treats her as the leading figure beside Luo Ziyan. Though she claims to follow Luo Ziyan out of rivalry, she is motivated by concern for her sister.
• Xiao Shijiu is grateful to her rescuers but also determined to demand accountability from Emei rather than let Lin Su’e bear the consequences alone. Her allies’ willingness to accompany her strengthens their bonds.

Significant themes

• Loyalty versus sectarian labels: Situ Ping questions the simple division between “orthodox” and “evil,” trusting personal experience and family bonds over accusations.
• Family and responsibility: The parents’ fear, anger, and later pursuit of justice stem from their devotion to their son; Xiao Shijiu likewise accepts responsibility for her disciple.
• Consequences of coercion: Ziling’s desperate abduction and Emei’s intervention set off a long chain of resentment and retaliation.
• Recognition and hidden worth: Shi Feiyang’s praise highlights how genuine accomplishments can go unnoticed, and how meaningful it is to be understood by others.
• Alliance across old tensions: Formerly estranged or differently aligned characters cooperate when faced with danger, even as sect rivalries continue.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang’s group travels from Mount Heng to Emei, whose main entrance is sealed while its leaders complete their cultivation. Emei admits them through Flying Thunder Cave, where they pass through part of the formidable Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation.
• Emei’s leaders welcome the visitors and host a banquet. Xiao Shijiu explains that she came seeking an answer—and support—for her disciple Lin Su’e, who became entangled in a feud while helping Zhuge Jingwo.
• Xun Lanyin and Bai Guyi explain that Emei foresaw the danger would pass without serious harm, while the sect’s own predicament prevented it from intervening. Emei offers compensation and arranges mediation: it asks Wutai to postpone retaliation until a future contest, and secures Divine Camel Yixiu’s promise not to act personally against Xiao Shijiu or Emei.
• Emei gives Lin Su’e a treasure in thanks, and offers Situ Ping a Golden Core as thanks for helping Baoxiang. Xiao Shijiu and Lin Su’e are also welcome to cultivate on Emei for as long as they wish.
• The explanation and settlement satisfy the visitors. The meal turns cordial, and Luo Ziyan and Xiao Shijiu show Xiong Manniang around Emei’s immense, illusion-filled palaces and scenic grounds.
• Shi Feiyang asks that Yue Wen be allowed to cultivate on Emei, since he believes she still faces tribulations and would be safer with the sect’s guidance. Xun Lanyin agrees that Yue Wen can live and train there like a disciple, with formal apprenticeship to follow when Qi Shouming returns from seclusion.
• Shi Feiyang has also come with private aims: he wants to draw out Grandmaster Taiyi Hunyuan and investigate Emei’s Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation and Jade Green Peak, which may still contain powerful treasures.

Character developments and interactions

• Xiao Shijiu moves from seeking an explanation on Lin Su’e’s behalf to accepting Emei’s settlement. Her ties with Emei remain friendly.
• Xun Lanyin and Bai Guyi take responsibility for repairing relations, offering both a clear explanation and practical protections against further conflict.
• Lin Su’e receives recognition and compensation for her role in helping Zhuge Jingwo.
• Yue Wen gains a secure place to cultivate and the prospect of joining Emei formally.
• Shi Feiyang presents himself as Yue Wen’s concerned guardian, while concealing his strategic interest in Emei’s defenses and treasures.
• Xiong Manniang, initially connected to Emei through Shi Feiyang’s hostility toward it, is treated as a guest; the successful negotiations and tour leave the gathering on warm terms.

Significant themes

• Reconciliation through responsibility: Emei addresses past inaction with explanations, compensation, and mediation rather than letting grievances deepen.
• Duty versus self-interest: Shi Feiyang’s apparent concern for Yue Wen accompanies a broader plan to investigate Emei.
• Protection and cultivation: Emei’s sealed mountain offers safety and training, but its restrictions also keep disciples isolated.
• Secrecy and power: The hidden formation and unknown contents of Jade Green Peak make Emei both a sanctuary and a source of danger and opportunity.

Key events

• Shi Feiyang uses his perfected physical transformation to impersonate Yue Yun and is accepted into the Emei Sect. Because Yue Yun’s status is complicated, he formally takes a junior place among the sect’s disciples, though everyone welcomes him.
• Xun Lanyin gives him the complete first third of the Nine Heavens Profound Scripture, the full Lesser Purity Secret Manual, and a cave abode in the Central Primordial Immortal Mansion. Shi Feiyang quickly masters the teachings, then spends more than half a year in private cultivation.
• While appearing to admire Emei’s scenery, he secretly studies the Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation. He traces its workings toward Jade Green Peak, whose distorted time, space, and divination effects make it too dangerous to investigate closely.
• He eventually reaches a cavern where young Emei disciples are practicing swordsmanship. Golden Cicada asks him to assess a sparring match between Sun Nan and Yan Renying.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang’s disguise succeeds because genuine bodily transformation is unknown in this world; he also masks heavenly calculations, leaving the Emei disciples with no reason to suspect him.
• Though he now has access to Emei’s complete orthodox teachings, he continues cultivating his own arts and uses his new position to investigate the sect’s formation.
• Golden Cicada is introduced as an outgoing, mischievous boy—reborn in this life and brought into the mountains from birth. He treats the newly arrived “Martial Uncle Yue” as an old friend.
• Sun Nan, Li Yuanhua’s disciple, uses orthodox Emei swordsmanship; Yan Renying, Qi Shouming’s disciple, fights more aggressively and nearly wins. Golden Cicada loudly urges Qi Lingyun to help Sun Nan, provoking her. She and Sun Nan are destined to become Dao companions, a sensitive subject their peers avoid—except for Golden Cicada, who enjoys teasing her.
• The assembled disciples respectfully greet Shi Feiyang as Martial Uncle Yue, while he evaluates the younger cultivators’ match.

Significant themes

• Identity and deception: Shi Feiyang’s flawless transformation lets him enter the sect without detection.
• Knowledge and access: His new status grants him complete teachings that reveal how much he previously lacked.
• Hidden danger and calculated restraint: The formation and Jade Green Peak demonstrate that understanding a threat does not mean it is safe to approach.
• Fate and personal relationships: Sun Nan and Qi Lingyun’s destined bond contrasts with Golden Cicada’s playful disregard for its awkwardness.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang earns the Emei juniors’ admiration by offering incisive guidance on swordsmanship and spells. Though he conceals most of his true expertise, his practical explanations transform techniques the students had struggled with and show them how to combine abilities effectively.
• He reflects that Emei’s orthodox approach emphasizes cultivation, virtue, and avoiding conflict, while this generation faces a killing tribulation that will demand combat skills.
• Over more than two months, Shi Feiyang builds trust with the group through lessons and sparring. Golden Cicada becomes his most frequent visitor.
• Golden Cicada brings him the Ten-Thousand-Year Ganoderma Immortal, whom Shi recognizes as one of his own Four Young Ones. The Ganoderma Immortal has come to repay a kindness from Golden Cicada’s past life, Qi Chengji, by blessing his eyes with spiritual power.
• Golden Cicada hopes to keep the Ganoderma Immortal at Emei by transplanting his rooted original body from Heaven Beyond Divine Mountain. Shi explains how to reach the mountain and mentions two treasures that could help with the dangerous crossing, but Golden Cicada has little connection to their current holders.
• After Golden Cicada leaves, Shi uses the Haotian Treasure Mirror to contact the Ganoderma Immortal secretly. The Ganoderma Immortal reveals that he can speak and has been pretending otherwise to avoid trouble. The chapter ends as Shi asks why he came to Emei and whether he has other plans.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang establishes himself as a patient, generous teacher and gains the juniors’ confidence, while quietly maintaining his disguise and pursuing his own agenda.
• The Emei juniors, especially the gifted Two Clouds and Three Heroes, grow more receptive to practical combat instruction and increasingly revere “Martial Uncle Yue.”
• Golden Cicada shows affection and attachment to the Ganoderma Immortal, treating him as a cherished companion and hoping to keep him close. His request for advice reveals his willingness to attempt a risky journey for that purpose.
• The Ganoderma Immortal is revealed to be more capable and deliberate than he appears: he can speak, has advanced cultivation, and is concealing his abilities while settling his past-life debt.
• Shi and the Ganoderma Immortal reconnect privately through the mirror, underscoring their bond and the careful secrecy both maintain around Emei.

Significant themes

• Different paths to cultivation: Emei’s traditional emphasis on virtue and avoiding conflict contrasts with Shi’s practical study of combat and technique.
• Adaptability over innate gifts: Despite the juniors’ exceptional talents, Shi reflects that survival under the Great Dao depends on adapting to its conditions, not simply being clever, strong, or gifted.
• Karma and obligation: The Ganoderma Immortal’s visit is driven by a debt from a past life, while other characters’ histories and relationships likewise shape their present choices.
• Affection and impermanence: Golden Cicada’s wish to keep the Ganoderma Immortal with him conflicts with the latter’s need to complete his karmic duty and eventually leave.

Plot

• Shi Feiyang contacts the Ganoderma Immortal through the Haotian Mirror and arranges what he should do. The Ganoderma Immortal asks Shi to spare Golden Cicada, who saved him in a previous life. Shi reassures him that Golden Cicada will be safe unless he provokes trouble.
• The Ganoderma Immortal begins communicating with Golden Cicada and tells him about his fellow plant spirits. Golden Cicada learns they may be nearby and decides to search for them.
• Golden Cicada recruits Sun Nan, Zhu Wen, and Laughing Monk. Though Sun Nan warns that the mountain is sealed, Golden Cicada persuades the group to go. They plan to leave through the Zuoyuan Immortal Mansion’s thirteen trials rather than risk the guarded mountain gate.
• Shi Feiyang secretly alters and suppresses the protective formation, allowing the four to escape safely. Once outside, they set off to search the mountain’s rear slopes for the plant spirits.

Character developments and interactions

• Golden Cicada is affectionate toward the Ganoderma Immortal and eager to help reunite him with his companions. His adventurousness and confidence in persuading friends lead him to break the sect’s rules.
• The Ganoderma Immortal becomes more expressive and takes the initiative in communicating. His plea to Shi Feiyang shows his gratitude and concern for Golden Cicada.
• Sun Nan acts as the cautious, responsible friend, but his close bond with Golden Cicada makes him willing to join the plan.
• Zhu Wen resents Golden Cicada’s suggestion that she might reveal their scheme. He quickly apologizes and placates her, reflecting their familiar, sometimes quarrelsome friendship.
• Laughing Monk agrees readily, confident in his sword and treasures. The chapter notes that, unlike in the original course of events, he has not yet undergone experiences that might have tempered his pride.
• Zhu Wen’s history with Zhu Mei—three lives of misunderstanding, revenge, and eventual reconciliation—explains the stubbornness beneath her current personality.

Significant themes

• Gratitude and repayment: The Ganoderma Immortal seeks to repay Golden Cicada’s kindness from a previous life, while also asking Shi to show mercy.
• Friendship and loyalty: The four young disciples’ bonds outweigh Sun Nan’s initial caution, and Golden Cicada works to repair his quarrel with Zhu Wen.
• Fate and altered history: References to past lives and to events that differ from the “original story” show how changed circumstances shape the characters’ present choices.
• Recklessness amid danger: The Emei Sect faces a grave crisis, yet the young disciples’ curiosity and confidence draw them into an unauthorized adventure.

Key plot points

• Golden Cicada, Laughing Monk, Sun Nan, and another companion search the hills for sentient plant spirits but find none. They repeatedly sneak through Emei’s Thirteen Left Origin Restrictions, unaware Shi Feiyang is secretly keeping the passage open and restoring the formation afterward.
• Over the next few months, they make more outings and bring in Yi Zhou’s grandsons, Yi Ding and Yi Zhen. Their searches remain fruitless.
• Shi Feiyang uses the group’s excursions as cover to investigate Emei’s Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation. Disguised as a tiny ginseng child, he penetrates its shifting worlds and reaches Jade Green Peak, where he studies the Innate One-Qi Grand Purity Divine Talisman and opens a concealed treasure chamber with the Haotian Mirror and Cosmic Light Disk.
• Master Canxia detects the intrusion and activates the formation at full strength. She finds no major damage—only a leaf from a ginseng estimated to be more than three thousand years old.
• Golden Cicada suspects the leaf belongs to a plant spirit the group had sought. The Ganoderma Immortal confirms that it and its companions are tending an old, sentient ginseng, though it has not yet taken human form. Golden Cicada concludes it may have entered Emei and escaped through the formation; Laughing Monk doubts this.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang proves both audacious and methodical: he exploits the youngsters’ secret excursions to study Emei’s defenses, then risks entering the formation’s core and opening its hidden chamber.
• Golden Cicada remains impulsive and persuasive, recruiting new companions and insisting on his theory about the ginseng despite others’ skepticism.
• Laughing Monk is more cautious, questioning whether a plant spirit could pass through Emei’s defenses—and remains unaware Shi Feiyang has been enabling their own escapes.
• Master Canxia responds decisively to the breach, but the lone leaf leaves her without a clear suspect.
• Yi Ding and Yi Zhen join the excursions, their confidence reflecting the powerful, protective family they come from.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and risk: The youngsters’ rule-breaking and Shi Feiyang’s covert exploration both depend on concealment, yet each risks exposing Emei to danger.
• The power and complexity of cultivation: The formation’s interlocking worlds and changing seals show how even formidable practitioners can be trapped without the right knowledge and treasures.
• Nature developing into spirit: The ginseng’s long, hardship-filled path toward human form reflects the care and patience needed to nurture spiritual life.
• Arrogance versus caution: Golden Cicada and Yi Zhou’s grandsons relish adventure, while Laughing Monk and Master Canxia focus on its dangers.

Key plot points and events

• Golden Cicada and five companions search Emei’s Immortal Mansion for the Ginseng Spirit, then are caught by Master Canxia. She confines them separately and orders a broader search.
• While Canxia investigates a flaw in the mountain’s defenses, Yue Yun sends a warning that the Blood Demon has infiltrated the mansion. A Blood Shadow attacks her, but the Innate One-Qi Divine Talisman protects her.
• Emei’s elders gather on Jade Green Peak and organize an emergency search. Shi Feiyang is admitted to the peak after explaining that his divination led him to suspect an intruder.
• The elders’ calculations confirm that someone skilled in disguise and demonic arts is inside. They suspect Deng Yin or one of his disciples, divide the mansion into search areas, and comb it for months without success.
• They later suspect the intruder may have seized someone’s body and repeatedly screen the disciples, but cannot detect Shi Feiyang’s disguise.
• Shi Feiyang has secretly engineered the crisis: he altered the heavenly signs, created the apparent Blood Shadow attack with the Haotian Mirror, and steered the elders’ interpretation toward Deng Yin. While helping with the search, he learns how to access Jade Green Peak and studies its defenses.
• His deeper goal at Emei remains Chiyou’s primordial spirit. He also wants to obtain the Jade Lotus Pod’s Good Book of the Blood God Scripture, which he believes could help Deng Yin master his demonic nature without losing his humanity.

Character developments and interactions

• Master Canxia shifts from disciplining the young disciples to defending Emei against an apparent invasion. She appreciates Yue Yun’s warning, though her talisman—not the warning—would have protected her from the attack.
• Golden Cicada takes responsibility for the group’s misconduct, but Master Canxia sees through the gesture and punishes all six.
• Shi Feiyang presents himself as a helpful ally while manipulating the elders’ suspicions and gaining access to Emei’s secrets. His plan for Deng Yin reveals a pragmatic, compassionate philosophy: guide rather than condemn, while keeping a safeguard in reserve.
• The Emei elders respond with cooperation and caution, combining their abilities to search and protect the sect. Their trust in Shi Feiyang grows even as they fail to recognize him as the intruder.
• Yue Yun acts as a trusted intermediary, warning Canxia and helping establish Shi Feiyang’s standing among the elders.

Significant themes

• Appearances, disguise, and misdirection: The sect’s divination is accurate in broad outline but misleading in application; Shi Feiyang exploits both disguise and the elders’ assumptions.
• Knowledge depends on interpretation: A hexagram does not speak for itself. Experience and prior beliefs shape what people conclude from it.
• Discipline versus understanding: Emei relies on containment and suppression, while Shi Feiyang argues that human beings must acknowledge and transform their darker instincts rather than simply deny them.
• Power and responsibility: Shi Feiyang intends to restrain Deng Yin if he becomes dangerous, yet also offers him a path toward balance—an approach that keeps both compassion and control in tension.

Plot and events

• Unable to uncover the intruder in the Immortal Mansion, the Emei Sect repeatedly tests everyone. Shi Feiyang’s disguise remains undetected, and his conduct earns him the elders’ trust and the younger disciples’ respect. He also learns more of the mansion’s formation secrets, giving him access to places he previously avoided.
• Worried that Qi Shouming may eventually expose him—and that Chan Master Bai Mei might see through him—Shi Feiyang seeks a way to distract his opponents. Using the Haotian Treasure Mirror, he secretly contacts Deng Yin while appearing only as a tiny thought-born incarnation.
• Shi Feiyang proposes that Deng Yin send Chan Master Xiaoyue to establish a rival Emei Sect on the mountain’s surface. By openly recruiting disciples and building temples, Xiaoyue’s group could eventually become recognized as the legitimate Emei Sect, making Qi Shouming’s hidden faction seem like impostors.
• Deng Yin embraces the plan. Xiaoyue arrives with two disciples, performs miracles, raises funds, and begins recruiting—quickly attracting prominent local families and eager martial artists.
• Alarmed and angered, Qi Shouming’s followers debate confronting Xiaoyue. But their fear of the still-undetected Blood Shadow keeps them inside the mountain. They decide to let the rival sect grow rather than risk venturing out.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang strengthens his position within Emei through humility, perceptive advice, and frank but fair guidance of the juniors. His encounter with Deng Yin shows him using strategy and political legitimacy—not just force—to shape events.
• Deng Yin swings from relief at the apparent loss of Shi Feiyang to fear of the power that might have defeated him. Once reassured, he recognizes the value of Shi’s proposal and orders Xiaoyue to act.
• Chan Master Xiaoyue becomes the public face of the rival sect, drawing on his Sword Immortal background and Buddhist and Daoist training. He recruits disciples from influential families and establishes both Buddhist and Daoist branches.
• Qi Shouming and the Emei elders are increasingly defensive: they see Xiaoyue’s expansion as a threat but remain trapped by uncertainty about the infiltrator. Their caution frustrates the younger disciples, who want to fight.

Significant themes

• Legitimacy and public recognition: A sect’s claim to authority depends not only on its origins but on whom the world recognizes. Shi’s plan turns recruitment and visibility into weapons.
• Strategy over direct conflict: Shi and Deng Yin exploit their opponents’ caution, seeking to win through institutional growth rather than battle.
• Fear and paralysis: The unresolved threat inside the Immortal Mansion keeps Qi Shouming’s faction from responding to the more visible danger outside.
• Shifting power: The chapter presents political and religious influence as unstable, shaped by changing circumstances and the ability to build a lasting public following.

Key plot points and events

• Chan Master Xiaoyue’s Emei faction continues to grow. Zhu Hong leads its Buddhist branch, Venerable Golden Light oversees martial training, and Lu Qing leads the Daoist branch. Xiaoyue’s disciples build training grounds and block key Emei sites, drawing crowds whenever the orthodox sect opens its formations.
• The orthodox Emei elders fear that allowing this rival presence to continue will make their own thousand-year lineage seem irrelevant. They consider hiring outside experts to drive Xiaoyue away, but Qi Shouming doubts this would last once those helpers leave.
• Shi Feiyang argues that Xiaoyue is not the true threat: Blood God Son Deng Yin is. He proposes opening Emei’s gates and luring Deng Yin into the Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation, where the sect can fight him and Red Corpse to the death.
• Master Canxia passionately supports the plan, weary of years of cautious retreat. Qi Shouming consults the elders and divinations, then agrees. He will formally challenge Blood God without relying on outside allies, though he will not prevent anyone from coming to help.
• To preserve the sect’s future, the elders decide to send some young disciples away before the battle. Qi Shouming’s roster sparks controversy: some, including the Qi brothers, will remain, while Qi Xia’er, Li Yingqiong, Zhou Qingyun, and others will leave. Some disciples with family ties elsewhere are also sent home.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang emerges as the forceful strategist. He shifts the discussion from the humiliating but temporary solution of expelling Xiaoyue to confronting the deeper danger, and uses the threat of a future Wutai Sect calamity to persuade the elders that delay may mean eventual destruction.
• Qi Shouming moves from hesitation to decisive leadership. He rejects dependence on outside rescuers and accepts responsibility for challenging Blood God, while also making difficult choices about which disciples to protect.
• Master Canxia reveals her frustration and personal longing: despite years of Daoist and Buddhist cultivation, she feels she has no path to the Immortal Realm. Her resentment and exhaustion help drive her willingness to risk everything.
• The Emei elders debate the dangers of the plan, especially the possibility that Deng Yin can exploit his knowledge of the formation and his ability to divide his primordial spirit. Their decision reflects a shared resolve to stop merely waiting for disaster.
• Shi Feiyang admires Qi Shouming for placing Yue Wen among those to be sent away, recognizing the care and judgment behind the roster.

Significant themes

• Courage versus self-preservation: The Emei leaders must choose between continued defensive retreat and a potentially fatal confrontation.
• Legacy and succession: Sending young disciples away is an attempt to preserve the sect even if its current leaders perish.
• Leadership and sacrifice: Qi Shouming’s choices expose the painful responsibility of deciding who stays and who may carry the sect’s future.
• Pride and institutional decline: The rival faction’s growth threatens not only Emei’s territory but its identity and thousand-year reputation.

Plot points and events

• As the Emei Sect prepares for an assault by the Blood Demon and Red Corpse, Qi Shouming opens the Qianyuan Immortal Mansion. Its dazzling display draws crowds of martial artists to the mountain.
• Xuanzhenzi and Xun Lanyin secretly escort selected disciples to safety. Though the disciples beg to remain—and Li Yingqiong and Zhou Qingyun offer to leave their swords behind—Qi Shouming insists on sending them away. Golden Cicada must stay because, as the sect leader’s son, he cannot abandon the sect in its crisis.
• Qi Xia’er offers to take Golden Cicada’s place, but Xun Lanyin refuses. She tells the departing women that they may have to endure hardship and humiliation, but must preserve Emei’s lineage if the sect falls.
• Days later, five supposed martial artists enter the Immortal Mansion seeking instruction and offering to betray the defenders. They are impostors: their leader is Blood God Son Deng Yin, while his companions are his disciples and Chishi Divine Monarch.
• Qi Shouming recognizes Deng Yin and attacks. Deng Yin’s followers reveal themselves as Blood Shadows, and the fight rapidly expands: Xuanzhenzi and Xun Lanyin engage the other attackers, while Xiaoyue, Nine-Li Divine Lord, and their forces enter the battle. The Two Elders of Mount Song confront Xiaoyue and Nine-Li.
• The defenders retreat through hidden passages, intending to divide the invaders and trap them inside the Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation. Deng Yin stays on Qi Shouming’s heels, but the formation distorts space and time, making their furious pursuit seem to cover vast distances while they remain in the same corridor. Master Canxia activates the formation and separates the combatants.

Character developments and interactions

• Qi Shouming is resolute and authoritative: he sends disciples away for the sect’s survival but refuses to let Golden Cicada evade his duty. In battle, he recognizes Deng Yin’s disguise and withstands the Blood Demon’s terrifying illusions through discipline and powerful magic.
• Xun Lanyin shows both maternal concern and fierce leadership. She rejects Qi Xia’er’s sacrifice and urges the departing disciples to accept the difficult responsibility of restoring Emei if necessary.
• Golden Cicada is kept at the heart of the sect’s defense despite others’ pleas for his safety, underscoring his obligation as the leader’s son.
• Deng Yin uses deception to penetrate the Immortal Mansion, then unleashes his blood magic against Qi Shouming. Their duel becomes the chapter’s central confrontation.
• Xuanzhenzi and Xun Lanyin fight alongside Qi Shouming; Chishi Divine Monarch targets Xun Lanyin, while three other Blood Shadows attack Xuanzhenzi. Meanwhile, Xiaoyue and Nine-Li are drawn into separate confrontations with the Two Elders of Mount Song.

Significant themes

• Duty versus personal attachment: the sect’s leaders send loved ones away when survival and the preservation of Emei’s lineage demand it.
• Sacrifice and perseverance: the departing disciples must accept hardship and carry on the tradition, while those who remain face immediate danger.
• Deception and vigilance: the invaders exploit the defenders’ hopes of receiving help, but Qi Shouming sees through the disguise.
• Strategy against overwhelming force: the defenders use the Immortal Mansion’s maze and formation to divide the enemy rather than meet the whole assault in one place.

Plot points and events

• Qi Shouming confronts Deng Yin, whose mixed Daoist and demonic cultivation makes him a formidable opponent. Though Qi Shouming’s arts are purer, Deng Yin’s power is greater, and Qi Shouming initially struggles.
• Qi Shouming draws Deng Yin into the Gate of Annihilation. Its shifting miniature worlds—filled with pure-yang fire, golden thunder, and crushing blade mountains—destroy Deng Yin’s three blood-shadow manifestations.
• Deng Yin counters with blood shadows that mimic the faces and injuries of Qi Shouming’s friends and allies, trying to drain his life force and spirit. Qi Shouming’s firm Dao foundation resists the attack, and his Purple-Clear Divine Flame burns away the shadows.
• Deng Yin ignites the miniature worlds from below and conjures a huge claw that tears the Nine Precepts Immortal Banner from Qi Shouming. Without its protection, Qi Shouming escapes through the formation, piercing Deng Yin’s demonic net with sword energy.
• Deng Yin pursues him but is delayed by the formation’s many distorted spaces. He then sends hundreds of blood-shadow copies searching for a way to destroy the Gate of Annihilation and break the formation.
• Elsewhere, Deng Yin’s allies, Chishi Divine Monarch and Nine-Li Divine Lord, attack other gates. Master Canxia coordinates the formation from Jade Green Peak, supporting Qi Shouming and the defenders.
• Shi Feiyang claims he is going to assist Bai and Zhu, but secretly contacts Deng Yin through the Haotian Mirror. He warns Deng Yin that the attacks on the formation are a losing strategy and that reinforcements, including Li Jingxu, may soon arrive.

Character developments and interactions

• Qi Shouming proves exceptionally resilient: his purity of cultivation and unshaken mind let him withstand Deng Yin’s soul-draining attacks. Losing his banner forces him to rely on swift judgment, sword skill, and the formation rather than overwhelming protection.
• Deng Yin shows both cunning and confidence, exploiting the formation’s vulnerabilities and Qi Shouming’s dependence on the banner. Yet he is delayed by the formation and increasingly pressured by the possibility of reinforcements.
• Master Canxia takes responsibility for coordinating the complicated formation, following Qi Shouming’s prior instructions despite not fully understanding its mysteries.
• Shi Feiyang hides his real purpose behind a convincing display of concern. His secret warning to Deng Yin reveals that he is maneuvering behind the scenes and may be working against the defenders.
• Deng Yin’s blood illusions weaponize the faces of Qi Shouming’s “old acquaintances,” turning personal attachments into instruments of psychological and spiritual attack.

Significant themes

• Purity versus quantity: Qi Shouming’s refined cultivation withstands Deng Yin’s greater reserves of power, but cannot prevent him from exploiting moments of vulnerability.
• Illusion and reality: The formation’s conjured worlds are simultaneously unreal and deadly real, while Deng Yin’s apparitions turn familiar faces into demonic weapons.
• Strategy and deception: The battle depends not only on force but on exploiting terrain, concealing intentions, and anticipating the opponent’s plans.
• Endurance under pressure: Qi Shouming survives through steadfastness and adaptation, while the defenders’ coordination is tested by attacks on several fronts.

Key plot points and events

• Deng Yin is on the verge of being trapped by Qi Shouming’s Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation, but Shi Feiyang’s warning clears his mind: Master Ren is secretly clouding his judgment with Buddhist arts from afar.
• Deng Yin escapes the formation’s outer gates by exploiting his deep knowledge of it. He feints toward the Bright Gate, then doubles back through the central Illusion Gate toward Jade Green Peak, the formation’s core.
• Shi Feiyang evacuates more than thirty Emei disciples from Emerald-Congealing Peak using a Mystic Sect escape technique. He and Master Canxia remain behind, and he conceals the treasury entrance before entering it with the Haotian Treasure Mirror.
• Qi Shouming intercepts Deng Yin, but Deng’s blood flames overwhelm his defenses and destroy the Iron Bixi Immortal Shield. Xun Lanyin joins Qi Shouming, slowing Deng Yin’s advance.
• Unable to reach Jade Green Peak, Deng Yin turns toward the Dark Gate to join the Chishi Divine Monarch. Qi Shouming and Xun Lanyin pursue him to keep him occupied.
• Elsewhere, Chan Master Xiaoyue attacks the Two Elders of Mount Song with his fiery banners, then abandons the chase and seeks out the Chishi Divine Monarch and Nine-Li Divine Lord. The latter pair struggle to navigate the shifting formation, resorting to brute force and Yin Thunder to blast a path.

Character developments and interactions

• Deng Yin shifts from frustrated overconfidence to strategic escape after recognizing that outside interference is worsening his judgment. He remains a powerful, calculating threat, using feints and his superior knowledge of the formation.
• Qi Shouming stays committed to protecting the formation and preventing a massacre, but Deng Yin’s strength forces him to retreat and depend on Xun Lanyin’s support.
• Shi Feiyang takes charge in the crisis: he warns Deng Yin, protects the younger disciples by evacuating them, and then secretly enters the treasury while Master Canxia holds the formation.
• Master Canxia bears the exhausting burden of operating the formation while Qi Shouming pursues Deng Yin.
• Xun Lanyin arrives to fight beside her husband, forming a united defense against Deng Yin.
• Chan Master Xiaoyue renews his pursuit of Bai Guyi, driven by old resentment, but changes course when he realizes the divine lords are more vulnerable inside the formation.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus power: Familiarity with the formation gives Deng Yin and Xiaoyue an advantage, but Deng Yin’s overwhelming magical power makes him uniquely fast and dangerous.
• Strategy and sacrifice: The Emei defenders prioritize delaying Deng Yin and protecting others rather than defeating him outright.
• Loyalty and duty: Tong Yuanqi and Golden Cicada vow to stand with Emei, while Shi Feiyang urges them to protect the children and leave the fighting to those better equipped.
• The dangers of pride and fixation: Deng Yin’s humiliation initially clouds his judgment, while Xiaoyue’s old grievance against Bai Guyi shapes his actions even amid a larger battle.

Key events

• Shi Feiyang leaves Jade Green Peak and joins the battle, where Dwarf Zhu Mei and Emei’s younger disciples are fighting Deng Yin’s followers.
• Zhu Mei’s Soundless Divine Thunder has already killed several enemies, but his lone Dragon Sparrow Ring is contaminated when Wu Saqi uses his Blood Shadow Whip to turn a victim into a demonic embryo. Zhu Mei must keep the ring occupied with immortal fire.
• Wu Saqi attacks Zhu Mei as an invulnerable blood shadow. Zhu Mei tricks him into approaching and destroys him with a second blast of Soundless Divine Thunder, then begins gathering and burning the scattered blood fragments.
• A Sa Ba, Deng Yin’s most deceptive disciple, has secretly possessed Emei elder Tong Yuanqi and approaches Zhu Mei disguised as him. He ambushes and possesses Zhu Mei, then swallows Wu Saqi’s remains to absorb his memories and will.
• Shi Feiyang arrives as Zhu Mei is fighting A Sa Ba within his own body. Tong Yuanqi is dead, and the younger Emei fighters are losing heart; Yi Jing alone continues attacking fiercely.
• Shi Feiyang’s sudden assault kills several of Deng Yin’s followers and turns the battle in Emei’s favor. With the two strongest “Sas” occupied inside Zhu Mei, the remaining demons are vulnerable to his weapons and spells.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhu Mei displays both resourcefulness and vulnerability: he defeats Wu Saqi through a calculated trap, but haste and misplaced trust allow A Sa Ba to exploit him. His struggle against the possession is unresolved.
• Yi Jing confirms her devotion to Emei, having refused to flee earlier. She fights at the front and persists even when her allies falter and her weapons are obstructed.
• Shi Feiyang intervenes decisively, but distinguishes between his friendship with Deng Yin and Deng Yin’s disciples: he feels bound to help Deng Yin, not to spare the disciples, whom he regards as cruel and dangerous.
• Wu Saqi and A Sa Ba demonstrate the threat of Deng Yin’s blood-shadow disciples: Wu Saqi relies on brute force and a demonic whip, while A Sa Ba uses disguise, possession, and opportunism.
• Tong Yuanqi’s death and Zhu Mei’s possession leave Emei’s younger fighters without leadership until Shi Feiyang’s arrival restores their hope.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and sacrifice: Yi Jing chooses her sect over personal safety, while Shi Feiyang’s intervention reflects a complicated loyalty to Deng Yin that does not extend to his followers.
• Deception and vigilance: A Sa Ba’s disguise shows how easily apparent allies can become threats in the chaos of battle.
• The limits of power and equipment: Zhu Mei’s formidable cultivation is strained by a damaged, incomplete set of treasures, while even strong weapons can be neutralized by specialized demonic arts.
• The cost of demonic cultivation: The blood-shadow disciples’ power comes from consuming human blood and abandoning ordinary bodies, making them exceptionally dangerous—and morally corrupt.

Plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang’s intervention routs Deng Yin’s disciples, but Chishi Divine Monarch’s Twelve-Capital Secret Demon Divine Sound reaches into the Two-Polarity Dust-Mote Formation, overwhelming the Emei juniors.
• As Chishi advances with demon light and flames, Shi Feiyang teleports the unconscious Emei disciples to safety and tells Li Yuanhua to rescue Zhu Mei. Chishi retrieves Zhu Mei’s blood-tainted Dragon Sparrow Ring and withdraws rather than pursue them.
• Deng Yin, having taken the other Dragon Sparrow Ring from Bai Guyi, abandons the fight with Qi Shouming and his allies and heads for the formation’s Dark Gate.
• At the gate, Elysium Immortal Li Jingxu and Chan Master Hanyue (Xie Shan) appear. Li Jingxu’s Taiyi Divine Thunder knocks Deng Yin back, while Xie Shan’s Heart-Lamp fire attacks his spirit.
• Deng Yin survives by using the Dragon Sparrow Ring and the Sky-Mending Stone to shield his mind and lodge his primordial spirit. The attack surprises Li Jingxu and Xie Shan, who expected to destroy him.
• Deng Yin engages them with two ancient Golden Halberds, blood demon flames, and Blood-Fiend Demon Light. Li Jingxu and Xie Shan counter with flying swords, needles, colored smoke, and Buddhist light.
• Chishi and Nine-Li arrive with their disciples, followed by Xiaoyue and the pursuing orthodox fighters. Outnumbered, Deng Yin gathers his forces and launches a powerful combined assault. The chapter ends with the battle unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang proves decisive and protective: he quickly assesses Chishi’s threat, saves the Emei juniors, and ensures Zhu Mei is rescued.
• Li Yuanhua struggles to protect his disciples from Chishi’s sound-based attack, then follows Shi Feiyang’s instructions to save Zhu Mei.
• Deng Yin shows both great power and careful preparation. Aware of his prophesied death at the hands of Li Jingxu and Xie Shan, he has obtained and refined defenses specifically against their attack.
• Li Jingxu and Xie Shan work in tandem, with Li Jingxu’s lightning concealing Xie Shan’s lethal Heart-Lamp fire. Their first attempt fails, forcing them into a direct fight with Deng Yin.
• Chishi demonstrates the reach and force of his demonic arts, but his priority is retrieving his disciples and the Dragon Sparrow Ring.
• The arrival of Deng Yin’s allies and orthodox pursuers turns the duel into a larger confrontation, with Deng Yin urging his side to break through together.

Significant themes

• Destiny versus preparation: Deng Yin knows the foretold manner of his death and attempts to evade it through meticulous preparation.
• Cooperation and tactical deception: Li Jingxu and Xie Shan coordinate their powers, while Shi Feiyang’s quick decisions save the others.
• The limits of power: Even overwhelming attacks can be thwarted by the right artifact and foreknowledge.
• Escalating conflict: Rescue, retreat, and pursuit converge at the Dark Gate, setting up a larger battle between demonic and orthodox forces.

Key plot points and events

• Deng Yin and his demonic allies fight their way through the immortal mansion’s formation, with Emei’s immortals blocking the exit.
• Deng Yin repeatedly uses feints to seek a vulnerable target. He first tries to possess Qi Shouming, but the Heavenly Palace’s Tusita True Edict protects Qi’s primordial spirit. Qi traps Deng Yin in Tusita fire, badly injuring him, though Deng escapes.
• Deng then attacks Xie Shan, striking him with the Sky-Mending Stone. Li Jingxu intervenes, but Deng turns on him instead, keeping the battle going while his allies break through.
• Xie Shan’s Heart-Lamp Flower-Scattering Candelabrum is nearly out of lamp oil, and he cannot hold off the demons. Deng’s group escapes after a fierce battle lasting less than fifteen minutes.
• Emei suffers serious losses: the Heart Lamp’s oil is spent, Qi Shouming’s Tusita fire is depleted, the Nine Precepts Immortal Banner and Vermilion Bird Ring are stolen, and Zhu Mei is possessed by the demon A Sa Ba.
• The immortals try to drive A Sa Ba from Zhu Mei by flooding his body with Taiyi Pure Yang Immortal Fire, then by using demon-subduing arts and needles at his acupoints. Both attempts fail because A Sa Ba and Zhu Mei’s primordial spirits are tightly entangled.
• After seven or eight days, the group imprisons Zhu Mei in an immortal formation while they search for another solution.

Character developments

• Deng Yin shows his cunning through a succession of feints and shifts in target. Though Qi Shouming’s defenses injure him, he adapts quickly and uses the chaos to secure his allies’ escape.
• Qi Shouming proves prepared and steadfast: he anticipated a possession attempt and resists Deng Yin through both divine protection and inner resolve.
• Li Jingxu risks his carefully fashioned body to protect Xie Shan, then fights Deng Yin directly. He ultimately lets the demons escape when stopping them is no longer practical.
• Xie Shan is revealed to be weakened by past choices: his broken vows and depleted spiritual merit have reduced his abilities, while the Heart Lamp’s remaining oil has been used up.
• Zhu Mei struggles to retain control of himself against A Sa Ba, managing to keep his awareness despite being far less powerful than other targets of possession.

Significant themes

• Preparation and resolve against corruption: Qi Shouming’s defenses work because he anticipated danger and remains spiritually unwavering.
• The cost of past choices: Xie Shan’s earlier actions have diminished his cultivation and leave him unable to meet the crisis as he once might have.
• Protection at a price: Li Jingxu’s intervention and the group’s efforts to save Zhu Mei carry risks, but destroying A Sa Ba outright could kill Zhu Mei too.
• Limits of power: Even formidable magic and a gathering of immortals cannot solve a problem when the victim and demon are inseparably bound.

Character interactions

• Qi Shouming and Xun Lanyin work together to detect and counter Deng Yin’s attack.
• Li Jingxu repeatedly places himself between Deng Yin and Xie Shan, while Deng exploits the defenders’ concern for one another.
• The immortals cooperate closely in their attempts to free Zhu Mei, but must stop when their methods threaten his life as much as the demon’s.

Plot and key events

• The Emei Sect’s victory has driven Deng Yin back to Western Kunlun to recover. The battle has weakened him enough to delay his return for about ten years, easing the immediate threat to Emei.
• The sect debates what to do with the martial artists Chan Master Xiaoyue recruited under Emei’s name. Simply dismissing them would damage the sect’s reputation; leaving them unsupervised could let them bring it further disgrace.
• Shi Feiyang argues that Emei should absorb them into a lower court—a martial-world branch that can recruit and train ordinary people. He points out that Shaolin, Wudang, Green City, and Snow Mountain have all prospered by engaging with the wider martial world, while Emei risks falling behind by remaining isolated.
• Qi Shouming and the others agree to give the martial artists a choice: leave, remain loyal to Xiaoyue and his allies, or join the orthodox Emei lower court. Shi Feiyang volunteers to run it, and the sect approves.
• Shi’s appointment also advances his private plans. He wants to use his position at Emei to draw out Grandmaster Taiyi Hunyuan and ultimately reclaim the Heavenly Demon Immortal-Slaying Sword. He has already obtained Emei’s Jade Lotus Pod and helped weaken Deng Yin’s faction.
• At the Golden Summit, Shi stages a dazzling supernatural appearance as the Emei Sword Immortal Yue Yun, the “Jade Cave Perfected One.” He publicly denounces Xiaoyue as an expelled traitor who joined the Blood Demon and explains that the recruits were misled.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang emerges as a strategic, politically minded leader as well as a powerful cultivator. He persuades the sect to adapt to changing times, takes responsibility for the lower court, and presents the recruits with a clear but dangerous choice.
• Qi Shouming is initially concerned about the danger Deng Yin may pose when he recovers, but supports the lower court plan and trusts Shi to manage it. He suggests the fellow disciples rotate the role after five years.
• The Emei leadership shifts from treating the recruits as a problem to seeing them as a chance to restore Emei’s influence and fulfill the hope of its “great flourishing.”
• Xiaoyue’s abandoned recruits are placed at a crossroads: they can return to ordinary life, remain aligned with the demonic faction and become Emei’s enemies, or join the orthodox sect while accepting the risks of future conflict.

Significant themes

• Engagement versus isolation: Immortal sects must adapt to a changing world rather than retreat entirely into seclusion.
• Institution-building and legacy: The lower court offers Emei a way to rebuild its presence and cultivate future disciples.
• Choice and responsibility: The recruits are warned openly about the consequences of each path and must decide for themselves.
• Strategy and foresight: Shi’s public reforms serve both the sect’s long-term needs and his own hidden objectives.

Plot and key events

• Disguised as Yue Yun, Shi Feiyang establishes a subsidiary Emei monastery. After explaining the available choices, he selects eighty-nine suitable recruits and brings them together under Daoist dress.
• Shi Feiyang interviews each recruit in detail and discovers that one, Leng Yun, is the leader of the Leshan Sect. Years earlier, Shi Feiyang had secretly given the boy sixty years of cultivation to use as bait while pursuing the Heavenly Demon Immortal-Slaying Sword.
• That unexpected power encouraged Leng Yun’s ambition. On the journey home from Yellow Mountain, he mocked and beat the drunken Yu Yunzhong, who was grieving after losing his hopes of marrying Ling Yunfeng and gaining an immortal opportunity.
• Seeking revenge, Yu Yunzhong wandered in search of a teacher. After several failed attempts, he became a disciple of Xu Feiniang of Mount Wutai. Ten years later, now a Sword Immortal, he confronted the Leshan Sect. Leng Yun was absent, so his teacher, Sima Dexiu, fought Yu and was defeated. Yu’s revenge culminated in the same humiliating slaps and kick Leng Yun had once inflicted on him.
• Before dying, Sima Dexiu passed leadership to Leng Yun, explained that he had borne the humiliation in his disciple’s place, and urged him not to seek revenge. Leng Yun nevertheless kept his anger buried and spent years trying to become a Sword Immortal’s disciple. He eventually came to Emei seeking a teacher.
• Shi Feiyang accepts Leng Yun as a nominal disciple under Yue Yun’s identity. He puts him in charge of records, then begins teaching him foundation-establishment methods.
• Shi Feiyang spends months combining and improving the recruits’ existing martial arts, drawing on Emei texts to create a complete system for the subsidiary monastery, including internal cultivation, swordplay, movement, and concealed-weapon techniques.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang sustains his Yue Yun disguise and proves both an effective organizer and an inventive martial-arts compiler. He reflects on the irony of shaping the teachings of both Emei and Wutai, rival sects.
• Leng Yun has grown steadier since his reckless, boastful youth. His gifted nature and personal history make him a capable recruit, though his desire to avenge Sima Dexiu remains unresolved.
• Yu Yunzhong transforms from a humiliated, heartbroken young man into a powerful Sword Immortal, but his long-nursed revenge leads him to kill Sima Dexiu, despite not originally intending to do so.
• Sima Dexiu emerges as a cautious, responsible teacher who prioritizes his sect and disciples. He accepts the consequences of Leng Yun’s actions and tries to prevent the cycle of revenge from continuing.
• Shi Feiyang’s interactions with the recruits are practical and systematic: he screens them, records their histories and abilities, and adapts their varied backgrounds into a shared curriculum.

Significant themes

• The cycle of revenge: A minor humiliation grows into years of resentment and ultimately costs Sima Dexiu his life.
• Ambition and restraint: Leng Yun’s sudden power feeds his urge to prove himself, while Sima Dexiu’s caution reflects hard-earned wisdom about danger and humility.
• Fate and unintended consequences: Shi Feiyang’s seemingly small intervention in Leng Yun’s life sets a chain of events in motion.
• Rivalry and synthesis: Shi Feiyang’s work on both Emei and Wutai martial arts blurs the line between enemies. His techniques include counters to each sect, cooperative methods, and combined-sword moves—potentially shaping their future clash.

Shi Feiyang begins teaching Emei’s disciples a range of martial and immortal arts, inspiring them to train diligently. He then withdraws into a sealed underground palace beneath Jade Emperor Hall to investigate a strange lotus bud he recovered from the Jade Green Peak Treasury.
Using his spiritual sense, Shi Feiyang discovers a nine-holed lotus pod inside the bud, with a red sphere at its center. He recognizes the sphere as the Good Book of the Blood God Scripture, transformed into a compact ball after Elder Longbrow struck it with the Purple Ying Sword. Aware that the scripture is both a powerful demonic treasure and a potential means of helping Deng Yin, Shi Feiyang decides to understand it before passing it on.
As he probes the sphere, Shi Feiyang enters an immense sea of blood. He protects his mind with divine flames and manifests a huge black dragon from Chaos Primordial Qi, guiding it through the churning blood to the source. There, he finds a beautiful young woman seated within a radiant multicolored lotus. She identifies herself as the Stone God Princess, daughter of the former Lord of Stone God Palace, and asks what Shi Feiyang’s relationship is to Deng Yin. He answers that Deng Yin is his sworn brother.
The Princess explains her tragic history. Her father successfully mastered the complete Blood God Scripture and ascended, but she fell in love with Deng Yin and made an oath to the scripture’s demon god to win his affection. Although the demon god briefly brought her and Deng Yin together, his price was her Primordial Spirit and body. After years of failed attempts to escape the bargain, she eventually dissolved the oath through prolonged death-seclusion. Having already become a Demon God Dharma Body, she entered the scripture to replace its original demon god, who then departed for the Demon Realm. Now she presides over the Blood God Scripture. Shi Feiyang, understanding her position, asks whether she knows how to cultivate the scripture’s Good Book.
Character developments and interactions: Shi Feiyang shows caution and resolve, resisting the Princess’s supernatural influence over his thoughts and emotions. The Princess reveals a sorrowful past shaped by unrequited love, demonic bargains, and sacrifice; her connection to Deng Yin is central to both her fate and Shi Feiyang’s investigation. Their exchange establishes a wary but purposeful relationship, with Shi Feiyang seeking knowledge rather than being drawn into her enchantment.
Themes: The chapter explores the peril of demonic power and the price of bargains, the way love and obsession can reshape destinies, and the burden of choices that alter not only one’s own fate but others’ as well.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• The Stone God Princess offers to teach Shi Feiyang the Good Book of the Blood God Scripture by having his primordial spirit descend so they can practice it together. The scripture’s teachings are mysterious, and its two books are associated with erotic and demonic imagery.
• The Princess’s magic stirs Shi Feiyang’s desire, but his spiritual insight lets him observe those thoughts without being controlled by them. He questions her motives and says he wants the Good Book to help Deng Yin, who has been damaged by cultivating the Evil Book.
• The Princess insists her former romance with Deng Yin is over and condemns him as selfish and faithless. She reveals that their relationship began when Deng Yin helped save her from two immortals who had come to steal the scripture. After he reincarnated, she became consumed by longing and swore an oath on the scripture—an act that bound her to further trials.
• Shi Feiyang learns that Red Flower, rather than the Princess, was likely the person Deng Yin loved most and the one whose death he blames on Elder Longbrow. He grows wary of giving Deng Yin the Good Book, sensing that doing so could trigger a catastrophe.
• Unable to decide whether to study the scripture with the Princess or give it to Deng Yin, Shi Feiyang withdraws from the Red Pearl and examines the Jade Lotus Pod containing it. He realizes that bringing the pod out early has pulled him into events and karmic consequences he can no longer treat as an outsider.
• Since the pod may mature and change, Shi Feiyang decides to ritually refine it so he can respond to future developments. He discovers that, despite its use by the Demon Cult, it is originally a Mystic Sect immortal treasure, with hidden refinements left by Elder Longbrow. Shi Feiyang begins completing those refinements, intending to adapt the treasure for his own purposes.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang shows discipline in resisting the Princess’s seductive influence, but he admits that desire has arisen naturally. His larger struggle is practical and moral: he wants to help Deng Yin, yet fears that intervening will unleash consequences he cannot foresee. He also recognizes that his own actions have made him a participant in the unfolding conflict.
• The Stone God Princess is blunt and unashamed about her past, but her contempt for Deng Yin reveals deep hurt and unresolved resentment. She offers Shi Feiyang a choice: learn the scripture from her or hand her over to Deng Yin.
• Deng Yin remains offstage, but accounts of his history complicate Shi Feiyang’s understanding of him. The Princess portrays him as manipulative and unfaithful, while his past aid to her and his grief over Red Flower suggest a tangled web of old obligations and attachments.
• Shi Feiyang and the Princess debate who initiated their mutual desire; he refuses to accept her account as the whole truth. Their conversation shifts from temptation to Deng Yin’s past and the risks surrounding the scripture.

Significant themes

• Desire and self-mastery: Shi Feiyang can observe temptation without being ruled by it, distinguishing conscious choice from magical influence.
• Karma and unintended consequences: The Princess’s oath turned a past relationship into an ongoing burden, while Shi Feiyang’s decision to remove the lotus pod entangles him in events he had meant only to study.
• Knowledge and responsibility: The Good Book could help Deng Yin, but passing it on may cause greater harm; possessing powerful knowledge makes every choice consequential.
• Perspective and participation: Shi Feiyang learns that divination and power do not place someone above events. Once he acts, he becomes part of the “game” and loses the distance of an observer.
• Conflicting accounts of the past: The Princess’s bitter memories challenge Shi Feiyang’s assumptions and leave the true history of Deng Yin’s relationships uncertain.