Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Geng Peng explains that the Chiyou Threefold Scripture teaches powerful human–demon transformations and combat arts, but many of its techniques rely on mass slaughter. He and his brothers reject those methods despite their strength.
• He suspects Lady Baoxiang’s weapon came from the celestial realm and plans to consult his elder brother about making a countermeasure.
• As Geng Peng prepares to leave with Shi Feiyang, Lady Baoxiang and Zhuge Jingwo return with Old Lady Red Flower, a powerful unconventional immortal, whom Lady Baoxiang has recruited to help kill Geng Peng and Shi Feiyang and recover the Millennium Purple River Grass.
• Daoist Cold Light attempts to mediate, but Geng Peng and Lady Baoxiang immediately resume fighting.
• Zhuge Jingwo attacks Shi Feiyang. Old Lady Red Flower joins in with her flying sword, and Geng Peng redirects some of his feather arrows to protect Shi. Shi grows back to his full dragon size and uses his two inner cores, which become a Taiji Diagram, to block Old Lady Red Flower’s sword. The battle escalates as she counters Geng Peng’s arrows with her Bingling Shuttle.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang enjoys soaking in Geng Peng’s rare, fragrant tea. He candidly admits that he flies too slowly to travel alone, and Geng Peng agrees to carry him.
• Geng Peng reveals ethical limits to his cultivation: although he knows destructive ancient arts, he refuses to practice techniques that demand mass sacrifice. He also actively protects Shi during the renewed fight.
• Lady Baoxiang, unwilling to face the consequences of defeat alone, persuades her old friend Old Lady Red Flower to join her pursuit.
• Old Lady Red Flower’s history explains her complicated attitude toward the Emei Sect: Elder Longbrow once defeated her and arranged for her to guard valuable herbs for future Emei disciples. Though she initially hated him, she later came to see possible benefit in the connection.
• Daoist Cold Light tries to calm the enemies, but neither Geng Peng nor Lady Baoxiang is willing to set aside their feud. Zhuge Jingwo focuses his attack on Shi Feiyang while Old Lady Red Flower supports him.

Significant themes

• Power versus morality: The scripture’s potent arts are rejected because they require atrocities.
• Old grudges and future ties: Old Lady Red Flower’s resentment toward Emei gradually softens into a pragmatic recognition that their connection may help her survive future trials.
• Conflict overcomes counsel: Daoist Cold Light’s appeal for reconciliation fails, and the rivals return to violence.

Plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang and Geng Peng fight Zhuge Jingwo, Old Lady Red Flower, and Lady Baoxiang. Shi Feiyang uses his inner cores, elemental attacks, and Formless Fiendfire to pressure Zhuge, while Geng Peng’s Heavenly Forbidden Arts summon two icebergs against the women.
• Zhuge’s regret over the Purple River Grass leaves him vulnerable to the Fiendfire. He counters it with Emei’s Lesser Clarity Divine Light and saves his Invisible Sword.
• Lady Baoxiang attacks Shi Feiyang and Geng Peng with White-Brow Needles, but Daoist Cold Light’s Star-Absorbing Orb draws the needles away.
• Old Lady Red Flower retaliates against Cold Light for intervening. She traps his orb in her Five-Fire Universe Net, then destroys his flying sword and captures his Cold Light Needles with her Three Powers Fire Cloud Rings.
• Shi Feiyang traps Zhuge inside the Cloud-Mother Veil and a field of ice. He disguises his ascent with a storm of hail, then reaches the astral wind layer to rescue Cold Light’s orb.
• The Five-Fire Net grows stronger by absorbing astral wind, so Shi Feiyang uses his unusually potent Divine Fire Inner Core to balance and control its flames.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang acts decisively to protect Geng Peng, capture Zhuge, and repay Cold Light for saving him from the White-Brow Needles. His command of water, fire, and complex battle formations is emphasized.
• Zhuge Jingwo’s remorse undermines his normally clear-minded discipline, though he remains skilled enough to repel the Fiendfire.
• Daoist Cold Light tries to mediate, but his intervention makes him a target. His reluctance to fight contrasts with Old Lady Red Flower’s ruthlessness.
• Old Lady Red Flower’s longstanding resentment and unyielding temperament surface as she attacks Cold Light without mercy. Lady Baoxiang supports her with repeated needle attacks, while Geng Peng keeps Red Flower occupied.

Significant themes

• Emotional turmoil can weaken even disciplined practitioners.
• Intervention and loyalty carry risks, but also create obligations: Shi Feiyang acts to save Cold Light after Cold Light helps him.
• Power depends on ingenuity as much as force: Shi Feiyang combines different techniques and adapts to the Five-Fire Net rather than confronting it directly.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang uses the innate true-yang fire in his Divine Fire Inner Core to counter Old Lady Red Flower’s acquired five-elements flames. With her attention divided by other battles, he unravels the Five-Fire Universe Net.
• As the Star-Absorbing Orb begins to disintegrate, Shi Feiyang tries to preserve its remaining nebula with his water and fire inner cores. The nebula and the five-colored flames are drawn into the spinning cores and disappear, leaving both cores mysteriously changed.
• Old Lady Red Flower traps Daoist Cold Light in her Three Powers Fire Cloud Rings, stripping away his protective canopy and engulfing him in flames.
• Shi Feiyang attacks her with a large water-and-fire Taiji Diagram. She counters with her Bingling Shuttles, then evades his next strike by splitting into five identical forms and trapping him in her Banner-Mist Clouds formation.
• Inside the formation, Shi Feiyang studies its workings and uses its own spatial and elemental distortions to find a path out. Before he escapes, Geng Peng’s shout disperses the clouds. Geng Peng carries Shi Feiyang away, who willingly transforms into a small dragon and rides in his hand.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang demonstrates adaptability and patience: he protects a valuable treasure, improvises with his inner cores, withstands Old Lady Red Flower’s assault, and analyzes her formation rather than attacking blindly. His cores’ unexplained change suggests a new development in his powers.
• Old Lady Red Flower is formidable but stretched between multiple opponents. Her anger at Shi Feiyang’s apparent destruction of her treasure fuels her attack, and she resorts to deception and a powerful formation when direct strikes fail.
• Daoist Cold Light is left in grave danger, trapped and burned by Old Lady Red Flower while she is preoccupied with Shi Feiyang.
• Geng Peng intervenes at a crucial moment, freeing Shi Feiyang from the formation and carrying him to safety.

Significant themes

• Innate and acquired power: The innate fire in Shi Feiyang’s core can counter Old Lady Red Flower’s acquired five-elements flames, though the acquired fire remains more destructive.
• Adaptation over force: Shi Feiyang escapes the formation by working with its changes and moving against them, rather than simply trying to overpower it.
• Risk and transformation: His effort to save the Star-Absorbing Orb instead absorbs its remnants—and the flames—into his inner cores, producing an uncertain but potentially important change.

Plot points and events

• Geng Peng brings the wounded Shi Feiyang to Unfixed Island, a warm, flower-filled basin hidden among Northern Sea mountains. Geng Peng is gravely injured after rescuing Shi Feiyang: a fox demon’s secret art has pierced his primordial spirit, making ordinary medicine useless.
• Before dying, Geng Peng gives Shi Feiyang the thirty-six golden feathers he forged into treasures, asks him to find his elder brother Geng Kun at Iron Flute Hollow, and tells him to claim him as a disciple and study the Chiyou Threefold Scripture. Shi Feiyang finally calls him “Master.”
• Geng Peng dies, leaving Shi Feiyang heartbroken. Zheng Yuan Gui, a disciple of the island’s lord, summons Shi Feiyang to meet Ancestor Hollow Space.
• Ancestor Hollow Space offers Shi Feiyang refuge on Xiuqiong Plain, where he may gather herbs but must not waste them or harm the island’s creatures. He warns that leaving the secluded sanctuary means Shi Feiyang may never return.
• While preparing to cremate Geng Peng, Shi Feiyang recalls the Soul-Gathering Form-Refining Pills in the Heavenly Book Jade Casket. He gathers Geng Peng’s remaining soul fragments and seals them in the body inside an ice casket, hoping the pills may restore him.

Character developments and interactions

• Geng Peng proves deeply selfless and loyal, spending his last strength to protect Shi Feiyang and entrusting him with his legacy. His death establishes a powerful, if brief, master-disciple bond.
• Shi Feiyang moves from shock and grief to renewed hope, determined to find a way to revive Geng Peng and eventually avenge him.
• Ancestor Hollow Space honors his friendship with Geng Peng by sheltering Shi Feiyang, though he remains formal and emotionally distant.
• Zheng Yuan Gui appears as the island’s messenger; the narration foreshadows his future betrayal of his master and sect.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and sacrifice: Geng Peng’s final actions prioritize Shi Feiyang’s safety over his own.
• Grief and obligation: Shi Feiyang’s sorrow is tied to the responsibility Geng Peng leaves him—to carry his treasures, seek out Geng Kun, and avenge his death.
• Hope amid loss: Though Geng Peng appears beyond saving, Shi Feiyang’s discovery of a rare restorative medicine offers a slim chance of reversal.
• Refuge and isolation: Unfixed Island provides safety from pursuit, but its remoteness and the risk of never returning make that protection a form of separation.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang settles in a remote valley on Xiuqiong Plain. He stores Geng Peng’s frozen body in an ice cave, intending to restore his soul with Soul-Gathering Form-Refining Pills.
• He builds a home and a heavily warded underground cultivation chamber, where he can safely use the destructive Dongling Zither without damaging the landscape or revealing its power to Ancestor Hollow Space.
• Examining Geng Peng’s and Lady Baoxiang’s Heaven-and-Earth Bags, he discovers abundant treasures, strange creature eggs and preserved body parts, research notes on body-part replacement, and scraps of spells and treasure-making instructions.
• Among Lady Baoxiang’s possessions is the Dust-Veiling Banner, a spatial treasure. Shi Feiyang first masters the related Thousand-Li Courtyard-in-a-Pouch Shrinking Projection spell, then refines the banner.

Character developments

• Shi Feiyang shows caution and foresight: he protects Geng Peng’s body, avoids experimenting with unknown eggs, and conceals his strength behind extensive wards.
• He advances his spatial arts through study and practice, improving his ability to manipulate space.
• Lady Baoxiang is portrayed as a collector of unusual arts who struggled to understand many of them; her former connection to the banner does not let her reclaim it after Shi Feiyang secures it.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and its limits: Even rare, powerful techniques may remain only partly understood, especially when texts are damaged or come from unfamiliar worlds.
• Preparation and restraint: Shi Feiyang’s safeguards and reluctance to experiment reflect the dangers of unchecked power.
• Inheritance and appropriation: Treasures and teachings pass from Geng Peng and Lady Baoxiang to Shi Feiyang, who adapts them for his own purposes.
• Power concealed: Shi Feiyang deliberately limits the chance that others will learn the full extent of his abilities.

Character interactions

• Shi Feiyang’s bond with Geng Peng persists through his promise to seek a way to revive him.
• Lady Baoxiang’s inheritance links Shi Feiyang to her father, Old Man Xuexue, whose position in the Heavenly Emperor’s Library allowed him to send her forbidden or little-understood immortal arts.
• Shi Feiyang’s acquisition of the banner effectively severs Lady Baoxiang’s ability to call it back, despite its original connection to her.

Key events

Shi Feiyang continues his secluded cultivation, mastering the Dust-Veiling Banner and Geng Peng’s Golden Plume Arrows before turning to the mysterious Dongling Zither. By studying the Golden Seal Heavenly Talismans and mapping the constellations in his spherical chamber, he gradually learns to wield the zither through thought rather than ordinary playing.
Each time Shi plays, the Earthfrost Bell—an ancient treasure that controls the defenses around Ancestor Hollow Space’s undersea abode—rings in response. Hollow Space’s disciples repeatedly gather and search the frozen wastes for an intruder, finding nothing. Eventually, Ancestor Hollow Space recognizes that the bell is responding to immortal music and urges everyone to listen and learn from it.
Between practice sessions, Shi refines his transformed inner cores. Their water and fire energies thicken, while nebula-like patterns form within them, bringing the two cores closer to unity.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang progresses from studying the zither’s mechanics to grasping its deeper principle: it is activated by intention and draws on the forces of nature. He realizes that mountains, rivers, stars, and the movement of qi can themselves become instruments.
• Ancestor Hollow Space shifts from disbelief to reverence when he understands the bell’s response. He frames the mysterious music as a rare opportunity for spiritual insight.
• Ling Wei Sou responds cautiously to the unexplained ringing, while Zheng Yuan Gui is quick to anger and suspects negligence. Their repeated investigations exhaust the disciples, who speculate about an enemy, a test, or a broken bell.
• The bell links Shi, hidden in his cave, with Hollow Space’s distant disciples: his private practice becomes a lesson they can hear, though they do not know its source.

Significant themes

The chapter contrasts human-made music with the music of the earth: ordinary performance is limited by performer and instrument, whereas cosmic and natural forces can produce a music aligned with the Dao. It also emphasizes that profound insight may arise through attentive listening and good fortune, and that what appears to be a threat can instead be a chance for cultivation.
By the end, Shi has played the Guanghan Formation-Breaking Melody and begins the Yinghuo Landing Melody, feeling close to transcending human music and reaching the music of the earth.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang plays the Earthfrost Bell through the “Celebration of Meritorious Deeds Celestial Music,” developing his understanding of the Dongling Zither and the natural forces its music can evoke.
• The music overwhelms everyone who hears it: Ancestor Hollow Space and his disciples are entranced, while animals across the island lie dazed. Hollow Space believes he has heard music from the Immortal Realm and gained a rare spiritual insight.
• Hollow Space summons Shi Feiyang and praises his progress. Shi reflects that mastering the zither might once have helped him defeat Lady Baoxiang and Zhuge Jingwo—and perhaps saved his master, Geng Peng. He has still been unable to open the second layer of the Heavenly Book Jade Casket.
• Hollow Space introduces Cold Light and Mysterious Jade, two young cultivators born through the essence of Arctic ice and snow. He explains that, like other nonhuman beings, they must overcome instinct and cultivate restraint to advance.
• Impressed by Shi Feiyang, Hollow Space considers bringing him into his school, but plans to place him under his senior disciple Ling Wei Sou rather than accept him directly.

Character developments

• Shi Feiyang reaches a new limit in his musical insight and continues to reflect on his past failures and Geng Peng’s death. He recognizes Hollow Space’s unspoken intention to recruit him.
• Ancestor Hollow Space is exhilarated by the music and briefly feels he has grasped a deeper truth. His interest in Shi grows, though his view that nonhumans are inherently inferior shapes the position he is willing to offer.
• Cold Light and Mysterious Jade are revealed as unusual beings whose origins lie in the elemental essence of ice and snow.

Significant themes

• Discipline and self-restraint: Hollow Space sees control over instinct—not species or innate ability—as essential to the Dao.
• Music as spiritual power: The bell’s performance connects sound to nature and can alter the consciousness of listeners.
• Prejudice and hierarchy: Hollow Space praises nonhuman cultivation but still ranks a dragon below humans, limiting Shi’s place in his school.
• Regret and growth: Shi’s advancing abilities make him reconsider what he might have done differently in the past.

Character interactions

• Hollow Space scolds his disciples for failing to benefit from the music, then awakens the stunned animals.
• He praises Shi’s quiet cultivation and probes him by asking if he can identify the origins of Cold Light and Mysterious Jade.
• Through a long account of his sect’s history and rules, Hollow Space indirectly tests whether Shi is suited to join his school, while Shi reads the recruitment offer behind his words.

Key events

• Shi Feiyang politely refuses Ancestor Hollow Space’s veiled offer to become his master, explaining that he is only sheltering here temporarily and still plans to travel to Great Roc Bay. Hollow Space accepts his choice, though he privately regrets losing the chance to guide such a gifted student.
• Believing the music from the Earthfrost Bell comes from the heavens, Hollow Space waits near it for more performances.
• Shi Feiyang continues cultivating his inner cores, studying Heavenly Talismans, and practicing his instruments and treasures. He releases Mo Zhui, Moxiang, and the newly arrived Mo Ying from the Jade Casket and teaches them astronomy and the movements of the sun and moon.
• The three spirits react differently to Shi’s Dongling Zither: Mo Zhui and Mo Ying find its music draining, while Moxiang enjoys it. Shi realizes that Moxiang’s unadorned, guileless nature leaves him closest to the Dao. Their practice teaches Shi that pursuing the Dao means shedding acquired thoughts rather than continually accumulating knowledge.
• Over nearly half a year, Shi and the three spirits deepen their understanding together, and Shi’s performances grow more profound. Hollow Space listens intently but cannot grasp the music’s meaning.
• During one performance, Hollow Space notices that his second disciple, Zheng Yuan Gui, is distracted and resentful. Because Zheng resists the music and curses the unseen player, its influence agitates his qi and threatens to cause cultivation deviation. Hollow Space abruptly ejects him, using a sharp reprimand to jolt his mind back to clarity.
• Zheng leaves in anger, believing his master has humiliated him once again. Hollow Space’s amplified words resonate through the Earthfrost Bell and Dongling Zither, reaching Shi Feiyang, who mistakes the rebuke for an accusation directed at himself.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang remains independent, politely refusing Hollow Space’s mentorship while pursuing his own path. Teaching the plant spirits helps him recognize that simplicity and freedom from worldly conditioning can bring one closer to the Dao.
• Ancestor Hollow Space admires Shi’s unusual talent but respects his refusal. His fascination with the zither music grows, while his impatience with Zheng’s poor discipline becomes clear.
• Moxiang is revealed to possess the greatest natural purity among the three spirits, despite seeming slow-witted. Mo Zhui and Mo Ying are encouraged to learn from his innocence.
• Zheng Yuan Gui resents both the music and his master, and his resistance puts his cultivation at risk. Hollow Space saves him from a potentially dangerous deviation, but the intervention only deepens Zheng’s sense of grievance.
• The chapter’s final misunderstanding links the characters: Hollow Space rebukes Zheng, but the bell carries his words to Shi, who thinks they are meant for him.

Significant themes

• The Dao through reduction: The chapter contrasts accumulating knowledge with letting go of acquired thoughts—“In pursuing learning, increase daily; in pursuing the Dao, diminish daily.”
• Naturalness and purity: The spirits’ different responses suggest that closeness to the Dao depends less on cleverness than on being free of schemes and worldly conditioning.
• Harmony versus resistance: The music can guide those who accept its flow but destabilize those who resist it.
• Mentorship and autonomy: Hollow Space recognizes Shi’s gifts but cannot compel him to become a disciple; meanwhile, his attempt to correct Zheng exposes the limits of authority when resentment takes hold.

Plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang is startled by a voice interrupting his music, but cannot locate its source and suspects a demonic illusion.
• At Frostglory Hall, Ancestor Hollow Space (Lin You) regrets interrupting the bell’s “celestial music.” He sends away his disciples and prays for forgiveness; the bell rings again, which he takes as a response.
• Shi discovers that his Dongling Zither connects with the Earthfrost Bell while he plays. By using sounds that resemble speech, he asks who is listening and learns that Lin You has been hearing his music for days.
• Lin explains that the bell came from an immortal abode and has sounded with spontaneous music. Shi realizes the bell has been resonating with his zither. He verifies the events with a disciple, confirming that the exchange is real.
• Lin asks for guidance on surviving tribulations. Though Shi lacks reliable teachings to offer, he uses a few pages of scripture from Lady Baoxiang and claims he can teach either the Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations or the Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations. Lin chooses the Thirty-Six, and Shi recites the opening lines, asking Lin to interpret them.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang shifts from alarm and suspicion to cautious curiosity. He recognizes that Lin’s reverence gives him an opportunity to pass himself off as an upper-realm immortal, but he knows his knowledge is limited and avoids relying on teachings that Lin could expose as false.
• Ancestor Hollow Space / Lin You is humble, devout, and fearful of calamity. He interprets the bell’s music as a gift from an immortal, worries that his disciple’s interruption offended its source, and eagerly seeks instruction.
• Their relationship changes from one-way listening to direct communication: Shi tests the connection, Lin explains the bell’s history, and their exchange becomes a teacher-and-student encounter—though that appearance rests on a misunderstanding.

Significant themes

• Misunderstanding and perception: Lin mistakes Shi’s music for celestial teaching, while Shi initially doubts that the communication is real.
• Chance as a source of opportunity: The zither’s unexplained resonance with the bell creates a connection neither man understands.
• Faith, humility, and authority: Lin’s devotion leads him to treat Shi as a True Immortal; Shi must decide how to respond despite not possessing the expertise Lin assumes he has.
• The dangers of cultivation: Both acknowledge the difficulty of attaining the Dao and the threat of heavenly tribulations, though Shi’s ability to offer genuine help remains uncertain.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang recites a few lines of genuine immortal scripture—fragmentary teachings secretly stolen from the Heavenly Emperor’s library and passed down through several generations. Ancestor Hollow Space interprets them as instructions on the Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations, and Shi confirms his reading is broadly correct.
• Unable to offer more of the incomplete scripture, Shi claims the full art is too profound and dangerous to pass down yet. Instead, he teaches Hollow Space how to refine the Heavenly Stems Lock, a difficult treasure designed to restrain nonhuman beings and demonic souls and protect its user from demonic interference.
• Hollow Space, now convinced Shi is an upper-realm immortal, gratefully shares the cultivation method he obtained from an Immortal Mansion. Its water- and ice-based approach tries to produce true yang from extreme yin, but the foundation is unstable and can lead to lethal cultivation deviations. In theory, a fire cultivator could balance it, though their temperaments and opposing elements might cause conflict.
• Shi claims he needs time to consider how to improve the method. After ending their communication, he records and studies it. He realizes it suits his true-water inner core; because he also has a Divine Fire Inner Core, the two can balance one another, letting him practice the method without its usual dangers.
• After several months of cultivation, Zheng Yuan Gui visits Shi, asking to borrow queen mother grass for a batch of Bone-Setting Spirit Jade Paste. He offers to share the finished paste or repay Shi later.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang maintains the impression that he is a true immortal by presenting authentic but incomplete teachings and a valuable treasure recipe. Though he cannot genuinely advise Hollow Space, he studies the latter’s method and sees how it could benefit his own unusual dual-core cultivation.
• Ancestor Hollow Space grows increasingly reverent and trusting, eagerly explaining his technique and hoping Shi will guide him onto a safer path.
• Zheng Yuan Gui shows resourcefulness—and sharp ears—by remembering Shi’s earlier claim to possess the rare herb. His request introduces a practical, transactional exchange.

Significant themes

• Knowledge passed down in fragments: Heavenly arts survive through theft and cautious transmission, but each handoff leaves them more incomplete.
• Appearance versus reality: Shi’s supposed immortal authority rests partly on genuine knowledge, but he must bluff when asked for insight he does not have.
• Balance and the dangers of extremes: Hollow Space’s solitary yin-based practice is unstable; Shi’s paired water and fire cores illustrate how opposing forces can instead reinforce each other.
• Cultivation as adaptation: A method that is heterodox and dangerous for most practitioners may suit Shi because of his distinctive constitution.

Plot points and events

• Zheng Yuan Gui asks Shi Feiyang for Queen Mother Grass to make Dipsacus Jade Paste, but refuses to share the secret formula. Shi Feiyang declines to give up the rare herb without learning how the medicine is made. Zheng leaves in anger, briefly seeming ready to attack.
• Shi Feiyang consults Ancestor Hollow Space through the Dongling Zither. In the course of discussing medicinal formulas, he gets Ancestor Hollow Space to disclose the closely guarded recipe for Ten-Thousand-Year Dipsacus Jade Paste.
• Using thousand-year dipsacus grass from Geng Peng’s Heaven-and-Earth Bag, seventy other herbs, and Mo Zhui’s saliva and blood, Shi Feiyang develops a modified medicine. He produces three caskets of it and names it Queen Mother Dragon Saliva Paste.
• The chapter explains Zheng Yuan Gui’s real motive: he wanted Queen Mother Grass for its life-restoring power, not because he could or intended to make the paste. It also recounts how he helped the Lustful Sea Ram, who had angered Old Man Golden Wind by seducing his daughter, flee and become Ancestor Hollow Space’s disciple.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang remains calm in the face of Zheng’s hostility and uses his curiosity and resourcefulness to obtain the formula indirectly. He also adapts it into a more practical medicine that can save multiple people while conserving Mo Zhui’s strength.
• Zheng Yuan Gui is shown to be grasping and deceptive: he claims he needs the herb for the paste but actually covets its reputed power to revive the dead. His resentment toward Shi Feiyang grows when refused.
• Ancestor Hollow Space is proud of his medicinal expertise but readily shares his formulas with Shi Feiyang, whom he mistakenly regards as a true immortal.
• Mo Zhui willingly offers his saliva and blood to help make the medicine. Shi Feiyang, in turn, seeks to reduce how often Mo Zhui must be drained.
• The backstory connects Zheng to the Lustful Sea Ram: Zheng aided the fugitive spirit and helped him gain entry to Unfixed Island’s master’s lineage.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus secrecy: A formula guarded as a lineage secret ultimately reaches Shi Feiyang through clever questioning.
• Resourcefulness and adaptation: Shi Feiyang improves on an old recipe despite lacking its rarest ingredient.
• Self-interest and deception: Zheng’s stated purpose hides his personal desire for the Queen Mother Grass.
• Care and reciprocity: Shi Feiyang’s concern for Mo Zhui contrasts with Zheng’s willingness to pursue his own aims.

Plot points and events

• Yinyang, eager to please Zheng Yuan Gui, proposes luring Shi Feiyang out of the protected territory and ambushing him for the Queen Mother Grass.
• Zheng Yuan Gui worries that expelling Shi Feiyang will look suspicious, since Geng entrusted him to the sect and Ancestor Hollow Space recently showed interest in him. Yinyang suggests accusing Shi Feiyang of damaging the mountain’s feng shui by excavating his cave.
• Zheng Yuan Gui confronts Shi Feiyang with this false charge and insists he leave immediately, refusing to let him speak to the island master.
• On the way out, Shi Feiyang asks Ling Wei Sou to request an audience with Ancestor Hollow Space. The ancestor refuses, dismissing Shi Feiyang’s concerns and saying that hardship is part of cultivation.
• Shi Feiyang leaves Xiuqiong Plain without warning the ancestor that Zheng Yuan Gui may someday betray the sect—a warning he had intended to offer in gratitude for his shelter.
• Zheng Yuan Gui escorts Shi Feiyang through the difficult, restricted route out of the territory and continues following him even after they have crossed beyond it. This confirms Shi Feiyang’s suspicion that Zheng has ulterior motives.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang remains courteous despite recognizing Zheng Yuan Gui’s hostility. He accepts that he can no longer stay, but tries to clarify the situation with the island master and later grows wary of Zheng’s unusually persistent escort.
• Zheng Yuan Gui reveals his ruthlessness through the fabricated accusation and his effort to isolate Shi Feiyang from Ancestor Hollow Space.
• Yinyang acts as Zheng’s scheming adviser, offering a convenient pretext for the expulsion and ambush.
• Ling Wei Sou is friendly and accommodating, trying to help Shi Feiyang meet the ancestor, but cannot override the ancestor’s decision.
• Ancestor Hollow Space appears absorbed in his spiritual pursuits and dismissive of Shi Feiyang’s treatment, choosing not to investigate the dispute.

Significant themes

• Abuse of authority and betrayal: Zheng exploits his position and invents a charge to remove Shi Feiyang.
• Indifference and neglected responsibility: Ancestor Hollow Space’s refusal to hear Shi Feiyang allows the injustice to proceed.
• Suspicion and foreshadowing: Zheng’s insistence on escorting Shi Feiyang beyond the sect’s borders signals that the expulsion is likely part of a larger plot.
• Hardship in cultivation: The ancestor invokes the many ordeals of the immortal path, though his words also serve to excuse Shi Feiyang’s mistreatment.

Plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang senses hostile forces ahead and decides to avoid a confrontation with Zheng Yuan Gui. He breaks off their journey and uses the Thousand-Li Courtyard-in-a-Pouch Shrinking Projection technique to escape.
• While flying through the dark, frigid Northern Sea, Shi Feiyang encounters two cultivators hunting a giant multicolored clam. They are trying to force it to surrender its primal pearl, threatening to kill it if it resists.
• The clam reveals itself as Wu Qingyang, an acquaintance from the Eastern Sea, and pleads with Shi Feiyang for help.
• Shi Feiyang attacks with water-based core qi and hail rather than fire, exploiting the clam’s vulnerability to fire while avoiding harming it. He overwhelms the hunters, steals their flying swords, and freezes them until they can no longer fight.
• Wu Qingyang emerges in human form and thanks Shi Feiyang for saving his life, promising to repay him.

Character developments

• Shi Feiyang shows caution and strategic judgment by avoiding needless conflict with Zheng Yuan Gui, but acts decisively when Wu Qingyang is in danger. His knowledge of elemental strengths helps him defeat the hunters efficiently.
• Zheng Yuan Gui is left behind, frustrated after Shi Feiyang escapes.
• Wu Qingyang reappears as a vulnerable but resourceful figure, calling on Shi Feiyang and expressing gratitude.
• The two hunters are shown as ruthless and overconfident, attempting to seize Wu Qingyang’s pearl by force.

Significant themes

• Restraint and avoiding entanglements: Shi Feiyang chooses not to create further enemies when he can simply leave.
• Reciprocity and loyalty: Wu Qingyang’s past connection with Shi Feiyang leads him to seek help, and Shi Feiyang responds.
• Power and predation: The hunters exploit a weaker creature for its treasure, while Shi Feiyang’s intervention reverses the balance.
• Knowledge as strength: Shi Feiyang’s understanding of elemental affinities shapes his choice of attack.

Character interactions

• Shi Feiyang politely dismisses Zheng Yuan Gui, then escapes when Zheng tries to stop him.
• The hunters threaten Wu Qingyang and try to extract his primal pearl.
• Wu Qingyang recognizes Shi Feiyang and appeals to him for rescue.
• Shi Feiyang defeats the hunters and speaks with the freed Wu Qingyang, who offers repayment for the lifesaving favor.

Plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang reunites with Wu Qingyang, a clam spirit he last met in the Eastern Sea, now in the Black Sea. Wu explains that he fled north after witnessing the violence of cultivators and demons, mistakenly believing the harsh Northern Sea would be safer.
• Wu reveals that a faint fragrance from the night of Shi’s earlier battle helped him break through centuries of cultivation and form a natal primordial embryo. The fragrance was Shi’s Union Incense, prepared for Lady Baoxiang and Zhuge Jingwo.
• Two men had tried to steal Wu’s embryo, claiming they wanted his Rainbow Pearl. Wu asks to bind their primordial spirits as servants using a ghost-curse method. Shi agrees, but the men plead for mercy and Liu Yu’an offers information about a nearby coral reef.
• Liu claims the reef contains ten-thousand-year coral, protected beneath a sea eye by magnetism that nullifies spells and magical treasures. Shi agrees to investigate, promising Wu a defensive treasure if the claim proves true.
• Shi identifies Liu Yu’an and his companion, Mi Tuo, as a familiar odd pair from the original novel. He carries them and Wu toward the site, where Liu’s compass confirms their destination.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Qingyang has grown from a timid, easily frightened clam spirit into a newly empowered cultivator. Though still cautious, he now wants to punish those who threatened him and use their spirits as servants. He also shows tact by yielding the coral opportunity to Shi.
• Shi Feiyang protects Wu, advises him to conceal his rare embryo, and balances Wu’s desire for revenge against the possibility of obtaining a valuable treasure.
• Liu Yu’an and Mi Tuo shift from would-be predators to desperate supplicants, bargaining for their lives. Liu attempts to guide Shi to the coral as proof of his claim.

Significant themes

• Violence and vulnerability: Wu’s flight shows that even supposedly safe places offer little protection in a world ruled by stronger beings.
• Growth through adversity: His breakthrough gives him power, but also makes him a target.
• Moral change and retaliation: Wu abandons his former belief that harmlessness guarantees safety and considers using the same coercive methods that once frightened him.
• Power, trust, and bargaining: The group’s uneasy cooperation rests on Shi’s strength and the promise of a valuable discovery.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang discovers an immense, spiritually charged reef of ten-thousand-year coral on the seabed, surrounded by powerful Magnetic Primordial True Qi. The energy disrupts spells and many magical treasures, making the remote site difficult to reach and exploit.
• He hears Huang Zhang, a young disciple of Granny Mystic Heaven, calling for help from inside a bubble. Huang is shackled by a coral chain through his leg and has been left as bait for a Golden Ao.
• Huang explains that Daoist Scattered Flowers captured him because of his family’s feud with Granny Mystic Heaven. While his great-grandmother was in seclusion, Huang had slipped away from the Seven-Bird Palace and was attacked.
• Shi Feiyang agrees to consider rescuing him in exchange for instruction in Granny Mystic Heaven’s Seven-Bird Divine Art, which could deepen Shi’s knowledge of divination.
• Shi tries to break the chain by force, but it erupts in flames and badly burns Huang. The chain cannot be removed with ordinary strength or magic, and Huang knows only that Scattered Flowers or Granny Mystic Heaven can unlock it.

Character developments

• Shi Feiyang is intrigued by the coral and cautious about a possible trap. He weighs the risk of making an enemy against the value of the promised technique, and tries to temper his ambition by asking for the Seven-Bird Divine Art rather than Huang’s even more appealing Heaven-Sight Earth-Hearing Method. His rescue attempt also reveals the limits of brute force.
• Huang Zhang is a gifted but inexperienced young cultivator. Confident in his inherited art’s protective power, he had believed he could avoid misfortune; his capture leaves him remorseful and frightened. Despite his pain, he bargains with Shi for help.
• Daoist Scattered Flowers is established as a dangerous antagonist, motivated by a longstanding feud between his father and Granny Mystic Heaven.

Significant themes

• The limits of talent and prediction: Huang’s belief that his divination could keep him safe proves mistaken, especially when danger concerns himself.
• Power has conditions: The magnetic currents disable many conventional techniques, while the chain punishes direct force, making knowledge and careful problem-solving essential.
• Risk, reward, and restraint: Shi must decide whether a valuable secret art is worth provoking a powerful foe, while trying not to give in to greed.
• Isolation and vulnerability: Even a promising heir from a powerful lineage can be endangered when separated from protection and experience.

Character interactions

• Shi questions Huang about his identity, lineage, capture, and the trap, testing whether helping him is safe.
• Huang offers the Seven-Bird Divine Art as payment and explains his connection to Granny Mystic Heaven.
• Their tentative alliance is immediately complicated when Shi’s attempt to free Huang causes severe injury, leaving the rescue unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Shi Feiyang frees Huang Zhang from a coral restraint by deliberately breaking and cutting his leg, then heals it completely with a powerful medicinal paste. Huang Zhang’s leg regrows without pain or scarring.
• Grateful, Huang Zhang offers to teach Shi Feiyang the Seven-Bird Divine Art, but Shi Feiyang first removes the massive ten-thousand-year coral.
• Despite the coral’s escalating weight and magnetic pull toward the reef, Shi Feiyang uses a Fury Profound Pill to summon enough strength to uproot it and store it in his expanded Jade Casket.
• As the group leaves the sea, Huang Zhang divines that Daoist Scattered Flowers is waiting to ambush them. Shi Feiyang sends a magically animated water-double ahead, which triggers the enemy’s explosive warding net.
• Shi Feiyang confronts Daoist Scattered Flowers, who mistakes him for a capturable beast. The Daoist attacks with flower-filled pink baleful energy; Shi Feiyang counters with fire and reveals his Water-Fire Taiji inner cores, startling his opponent.

Character development and interactions

• Shi Feiyang shows both force and care: he causes Huang Zhang intense pain to remove the restraint, then heals him with extraordinary precision. His immense strength, expanding abilities, and tactical caution are also demonstrated.
• Huang Zhang shifts from frightened captive to grateful ally. He offers his secret art and uses divination to warn the group of danger.
• Daoist Scattered Flowers is arrogant and dismissive, treating Shi Feiyang as an animal rather than an intelligent opponent. His surprise at Shi Feiyang’s speech and inner cores unsettles that assumption.
• Shi Feiyang coordinates with Huang Zhang, Wu Qingyang, Liu Yu’an, and Mi Tuo as they escape and prepare for the ambush.

Significant themes

• Pain and trust: Huang Zhang must endure a frightening procedure before realizing Shi Feiyang intends to save him.
• Power and transformation: Shi Feiyang’s cultivated inner cores and strength let him overcome obstacles that ordinary spells or treasures cannot.
• Caution and foresight: Huang Zhang’s divination and Shi Feiyang’s decoy prevent the group from walking blindly into an ambush.
• Underestimation: Daoist Scattered Flowers’s contempt for Shi Feiyang exposes the danger of judging an opponent by appearance.

Plot points

• Shi Feiyang confronts Daoist Scattered Flowers, whose blood-red magical light and needle treasure initially hold back Feiyang’s newly refined Water-Fire Inner Cores.
• Scattered Flowers unleashes his Red Cloud Flower-Scattering Needles: thousands of mother needles burst into more than two hundred thousand blood-flame daughter needles that home in on Feiyang.
• Feiyang uses a new property of his inner cores—an energy-rich nebula absorbed from Daoist Cold Light’s Star-Absorbing Orb—to transform their Taiji rotation into a Chaos Diagram with immense suction. It draws in the needles and neutralizes the attack.
• Scattered Flowers flees by merging with his flying sword, but the inner core’s pull slows him. Feiyang’s core catches him and scatters the needles across his body; their blood-flames burn him to a skeleton, then to ash, while his primordial spirit is pinned and destroyed.
• Feiyang gathers and seals the needles, intending to study them later.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang demonstrates how much stronger and more versatile his newly refined inner cores have become. He stays composed under attack and turns an unfamiliar weapon’s power against its owner.
• Daoist Scattered Flowers shifts from confidence—first hoping to capture the dragon, then planning to kill it for its valuable parts—to panic when his prized weapon is taken. His own needles ultimately kill him.
• Huang Zhang recognizes the needles and warns Feiyang, supplying crucial information about their danger and origins.
• The battle is a contest of escalating magical techniques: Scattered Flowers relies on his renowned, self-targeting needles, while Feiyang’s inner cores absorb, overpower, and finally weaponize them.

Significant themes

• Power and adaptation: Feiyang’s cultivation advances through experimentation, and a technique he has tested only in private proves decisive in combat.
• Weapons can endanger their wielders: The needles’ bloodthirsty nature makes them lethal even to their master when control fails.
• Overconfidence and reversal: Scattered Flowers trusts his newly refined treasure, but his attempt to dominate the dragon ends in his own destruction.

Plot points

• After killing Daoist Scattered Flowers, Shi Feiyang retrieves the Scattered Flower Sword and keeps his promise to spare Liu Yu’an and Mi Tuo, returning their flying swords and letting them go.
• Huang Zhang teaches Shi Feiyang the Seven-Bird Divine Art, a system of cycles and celestial calculations tied to the twenty-eight lunar mansions. Shi Feiyang connects it with other cosmological systems he has studied and briefly glimpses a ring of three hundred and sixty Heavenly Talismans, though he cannot yet understand what he has grasped.
• Wu Qingyang asks Shi Feiyang to help her be reborn as a human rather than continue life as a clam. Though he warns her that human life may bring hardship and spiritual cultivation may be lost, she remains determined.
• Shi Feiyang stabilizes Wu Qingyang’s primordial embryo and sends her into the womb of a pregnant fisherwoman. He places her Seven-Colored Rainbow Pearl in a tiny Jade Lock for the child to hold; its power will gradually awaken her former-life memories in adolescence.
• Shi Feiyang struggles to master the Red Cloud Flower-Scattering Needles and decides to seek Geng Kun, hoping to learn the Chiyou Threefold Scripture and develop a human body. He travels across the seas and reaches Geng Kun’s home at Iron Flute Hollow.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang demonstrates integrity by honoring his promise to his captives, and compassion by respecting Wu Qingyang’s choice while helping secure her rebirth.
• Wu Qingyang chooses the uncertainty of human life over the danger and confinement she has endured as a nonhuman creature. She expresses gratitude by offering her pearl and clam shell.
• Huang Zhang repays Shi Feiyang’s kindness by teaching him his art, while Shi Feiyang carefully sees him off.
• Shi Feiyang’s next steps reflect both ambition and caution: he seeks new knowledge because he anticipates future enemies and the vulnerability of his coming transformation.

Significant themes

• Choice and identity: Wu Qingyang accepts the risks of rebirth to pursue a human life.
• Integrity and reciprocity: Shi Feiyang keeps his word, and others respond with instruction or gifts.
• Knowledge and patient cultivation: Shi Feiyang’s insight into the Heavenly Dao remains incomplete; progress cannot be forced.
• Preparation and vulnerability: Anticipated revenge and the danger of shedding his skin drive Shi Feiyang to seek allies, techniques, and a human form.

Shi Feiyang reaches Great Roc Bay and identifies himself to Geng Kun as the disciple of Geng Peng, Geng Kun’s recently deceased younger brother. Geng Kun demands proof, so Shi Feiyang presents Geng Peng’s golden feathers and Heaven-and-Earth Bag. Geng Kun recognizes both, but objects that Shi Feiyang has refined the feathers into weapons and altered the bag’s contents. He insists that Geng Peng’s possessions belong to their Golden-Wing Featherfolk. Shi Feiyang avoids conflict by agreeing and handing everything over.
Geng Kun is overcome with grief when Shi Feiyang repeats Geng Peng’s final instructions, including the warning that Geng Kun’s temper is worse than his brother’s. He promises to pursue revenge against Geng Peng’s enemies—Baoxiang, Zhuge Jingwo, and Red Flower Old Demon—when circumstances allow. In the meantime, Shi Feiyang must cultivate diligently and remain at Great Roc Bay; Geng Kun forbids him to leave or cause trouble without permission. He grants Shi Feiyang Geng Peng’s Carefree Palace as his residence.
Shi Feiyang explores the palace and learns what kind of life Geng Peng led. Carefree Palace is elegant but sparsely furnished, with facilities for cultivation, alchemy, treasure-making, and even surgery. A hidden passage connects it to an ancient underwater palace that Geng Kun also uses, but Shi Feiyang chooses to stay away. There are no servants on Soaring Peak, reflecting Geng Peng’s preference for independence.
Over ten days, Shi Feiyang quietly observes Great Roc Bay and its inhabitants. He discovers that the Geng brothers have collected thousands of human-animal hybrids alongside numerous bird and beast demons.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang is cautious and observant. He anticipates Geng Kun’s demands, prepares Geng Peng’s belongings for surrender, and avoids challenging his new uncle while settling into his inheritance.
• Geng Kun initially appears cold and domineering, but his grief for his brother surfaces when he hears Geng Peng’s last words. He accepts Shi Feiyang as a dependent, though under strict rules.
• Geng Peng remains present through his belongings, palace, and final instructions: his generosity toward Shi Feiyang contrasts with Geng Kun’s more guarded nature.

Themes

• Grief and family loyalty: Geng Kun’s sorrow drives his promise of revenge.
• Inheritance and belonging: Shi Feiyang receives Geng Peng’s home and teachings, but the ownership of his master’s possessions is contested.
• Power, restraint, and adaptation: Shi Feiyang survives a potentially hostile encounter by yielding, then learns his unfamiliar surroundings through patient observation.
• Freedom and order: Geng Peng’s solitary palace embodies independence, while Geng Kun’s rules impose limits on Shi Feiyang’s new life.

Plot and events

• In the Zu Mountain World, demons cannot simply transform into humans through cultivation. They must either reincarnate as humans or radically remake their bodies—both difficult and risky. Shi Feiyang is unsure whether to pursue either route.
• Geng Kun, impressed that Shi Feiyang keeps to himself and avoids trouble, teaches him a body-shaping method from the Chiyou Threefold Scripture. It treats humans and beasts as comparable forms of life and allows cultivators to reshape or strengthen their bodies.
• Shi Feiyang practices the method by consuming Fury Profound Pills, whose powerful ingredients fuel rapid growth. Over several months he more than doubles in size, strengthens his body, and develops larger horns, sharper teeth, and gleaming scales. He also teaches the method to the three small beings living in his Jade Casket, though he keeps them safely inside.
• Rather than gradually imitate a human, Shi Feiyang decides to grow wings like Geng Kun’s, but black rather than gold. After more than half a year, a pair of large but undeveloped, downy wings emerges from his back.
• Geng Kun summons Shi Feiyang to the Sky-Hanging Palace, where he meets three senior disciples who oversee the island’s birds, aquatic creatures, and land beasts. Geng Kun announces that he plans to take them on an important mission.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Feiyang is cautious and self-reliant, but also unconventional: he chooses to enhance his dragon body and grow wings instead of pursuing a human appearance. He studies Geng Kun’s method carefully and applies it to himself and his companions.
• Geng Kun shifts from watching Shi Feiyang warily to mentoring him. He is impressed by Shi Feiyang’s discipline and privately admires his independent approach.
• Su Nanyi, a crow-human hybrid, commands the island’s avian disciples; Qianji Quan, a sharklike disciple, oversees its aquatic creatures; and Yuan Ming, a powerful former mountain ape, leads its land beasts. Their presence establishes the island’s leadership structure and connects Shi Feiyang to its wider community.

Significant themes

• Self-determination and transformation: Shi Feiyang rejects conventional paths and chooses a form of development suited to his own instincts.
• Discipline and risk: Physical transformation demands sustained effort, while the safer course of keeping the Jade Casket companions hidden reflects the dangers of acting too soon.
• The boundary between human and beast: The cultivation method challenges the idea that humanity and animality are fundamentally separate, presenting both as bodies that can be shaped through practice.