Chapter Summaries

Chapter summary

Liu Song reveals that he has advanced to Foundation Establishment and openly mocks Mo Chen, expecting him to react with fear or anger. Instead of killing him himself, Liu Song hurls Mo Chen down the street and orders the surrounding cultivators to chase him, promising that the person who brings back Mo Chen’s head will be allowed to leave.
Mo Chen recognizes that Liu Song is more interested in tormenting him than ending the fight quickly. He uses the brief chance to escape on a basic sect-issued flying boat, though the black mist surrounding Cloudrain Market prevents him from fleeing far. Testing the mist leaves his spiritual power unstable and his head dizzy, so he avoids entering it, where refined corpses are lurking.
When the crowd hesitates to pursue Mo Chen, Liu Song demonstrates his new power: he drags a cultivator toward him, kills him with Foundation Establishment true flame, and extracts two spiritual-root-related materials from the ashes. The threat sends the others after Mo Chen.
As dozens of cultivators pursue him, Mo Chen assesses the imbalance between Liu Song’s new realm and their combined strength. He concludes that confronting Liu Song would bring heavy casualties, but that joining forces may offer a better chance than allowing Liu Song to pick them off one by one. He resolves to persuade his pursuers to cooperate.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen remains composed under Liu Song’s taunts and thinks strategically even while fleeing. He recognizes Liu Song’s desire for revenge, but also sees the chase as a possible opportunity to turn the crowd against him.
• Liu Song is newly empowered and increasingly sadistic. He treats the crowd as props in his revenge against Mo Chen, using a public execution to force them to obey.
• The pursuing cultivators are frightened and divided. They know that pursuing Mo Chen may not save them, but refusing Liu Song’s orders could make them his next victims. Their uneasy exchanges reveal the possibility of collective resistance.

Significant themes

• Power and terror: Liu Song’s new realm lets him control the crowd through force and fear.
• Survival versus solidarity: The cultivators must choose between competing individually for safety and risking cooperation against a stronger enemy.
• Cunning under pressure: Mo Chen’s best advantage is not raw strength but his ability to assess the situation and exploit Liu Song’s overconfidence.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Mo Chen rallies the cultivators pursuing him by warning that Liu Song intends to kill and refine them all. He explains that Liu Song has only recently reached Foundation Establishment by consuming other cultivators, leaving his new realm unstable.
• The pursuers turn back and join Mo Chen, forcing Liu Song to defend himself against a growing group. He summons skeletal ghost hands that tear through protective auras and keep the attackers on the defensive.
• Mo Chen uses Ghost Shadow Step to evade a ghost hand. He reveals that the technique consumes sacrificed blood, and that his earlier injury has left him with enough blood for several more uses.
• More cultivators join the battle. Despite their combined spells and artifacts, Liu Song’s realm-level pressure suppresses their attacks. He completes a secret art that boosts him from Foundation Establishment early stage to middle stage, then withstands a barrage from over sixty Qi Refining cultivators.
• The art’s backlash strikes almost immediately, however, dropping Liu Song all the way to Qi Refining perfection. Mo Chen calls for the others to attack while Liu Song’s power is weakened.
• Liu Song launches a desperate assault on Mo Chen. Wen Rongxue secretly advises him to draw Liu Song toward her, where she can use her Nameless Illusion. She binds Liu Song with mauve silk and confronts him, but he attacks her with a blood-powered dagger.
• Mo Chen intercepts the dagger with a sword, which is destroyed in the clash. Wen Rongxue then casts a second-tier Earth Dragon spell, astonishing Liu Song. Mo Chen recognizes that her long-awaited illusion ability is at last coming into play and joins her attack with his Black Gold Flying Sword and Firebirds.

Character developments

• Mo Chen shifts from fleeing alone to coordinating a collective fight. He shows tactical judgment, resourcefulness, and a willingness to risk himself, while remaining wary of Liu Song’s strength and possible last stand.
• Wen Rongxue reveals unexpected combat ability and composure. She uses an illusion-based tactic, restrains Liu Song, and casts a powerful second-tier spell despite her apparent low cultivation.
• Liu Song goes from confident predator to increasingly desperate combatant. His forced advancement briefly makes him stronger, but its severe backlash leaves him weakened and furious.

Significant themes

• Unity against overwhelming power: The cultivators’ best chance comes from cooperation, even among strangers.
• Power and its cost: Liu Song’s secret art grants a temporary advancement but rapidly devastates his cultivation.
• Ingenuity over raw strength: Mo Chen and Wen Rongxue survive through deception, evasion, timing, and coordinated attacks.
• Risk and desperation: With no safe escape, both sides gamble everything on decisive moves.

Character interactions

• Mo Chen persuades the pursuing cultivators to turn against Liu Song and later directs their attacks.
• The cultivators coordinate spells and artifacts, though Liu Song’s ghost hands and spiritual pressure repeatedly disrupt them.
• Wen Rongxue communicates with Mo Chen and proposes an ambush; he trusts her plan despite doubts.
• Mo Chen protects Wen Rongxue by diverting Liu Song’s dagger, while she supports their counterattack with restraint, illusion, and Earth Dragons.

• Mo Chen kills Liu Song: After using the earth dragon as a distraction, Mo Chen catches Liu Song off guard, burns through his neck with flames, then pierces his chest with the Black Gold Flying Sword. The assembled cultivators are horrified by the gruesome death.
• The survivors eye Liu Song’s spoils: Though they approach Mo Chen with polite questions, he recognizes that they mainly want Liu Song’s Storage Bag and the valuable items inside—especially the refined five-elements essence. Mo Chen downplays his role in the victory, then declines to share the loot. He does not want to be associated with Liu Le’s belongings, which could create suspicion if recognized later. He also claims he needs to recover and leaves.
• Wen Rongxue follows: She likewise refuses to join the division of the spoils, explaining that she has no wish to be caught up in the aftermath. She catches up with Mo Chen and admits she left because she feared the others might discover that the spells she sold were not truly second-tier.
• A playful farewell: Mo Chen thanks Wen Rongxue for saving him. She insists he call her “big sister,” then says that his ability to see through her illusion has changed her opinion of him. She parts from him using his assumed name, “Bai Weishuang,” leaving Mo Chen worried that she might investigate the identity.
• Mo Chen resumes his journey: After a brief rest, he travels onward, replenishing his Spiritual Power with Spirit Stones. Liu Song’s attack destroyed his One-Leaf Boat, delaying him several days. Eight days later he reaches the vicinity of Emerging Cloud Peak, and after another four hours arrives at its mountain gate, where a guard orders him to halt.
  Character developments and interactions: Mo Chen proves both formidable and calculating: he wins through deception, reads the survivors’ greed, avoids unnecessary conflict, and conceals his identity. Wen Rongxue shows similar caution, while her banter with Mo Chen reveals a more spirited, familiar side to their relationship. Their mutual decision to leave contrasts with the remaining cultivators’ eagerness to divide the treasure.
  Themes: The chapter highlights how quickly cooperation can give way to greed once a common enemy is gone. It also emphasizes the value of caution, deception, and protecting one’s reputation and identity in a dangerous world.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After returning to Emerging Cloud Peak, Mo Chen is stopped at the entrance for failing to present his identification token. He explains that he is a new disciple, shows his Contest Token, and is allowed inside after a warning from the senior steward.
• At the Myriad Chips Hall, Mo Chen submits his Contest Token for mission verification. An Inspection Envoy will check the site within three days; if the requirements are confirmed, he will receive seven chips.
• Rather than rest, Mo Chen leaves the sect to shop for a replacement flying spirit artifact. He had lost his previous one and considers it important for convenient travel and escaping danger.
• He travels by immortal crane to the Nine Hundred Immortal Reception Platforms, a vast and lavish network of nearly a thousand teleportation arrays serving destinations across the world. The spectacle leaves him awestruck.
• Mo Chen plans to visit Tianzhou City, a prosperous second-class immortal city administered by the Literary Wind Sect. Before boarding, he learns that a one-way teleportation talisman for the Fourth-Tier Array costs fifty spirit stones.
• The price reminds him that an injured old man once gave him a talisman and used an array at Dragon Whisker Cliff. Mo Chen realizes the old man must have been far more powerful than he had assumed—and wonders what kind of opponent could have grievously wounded him.
• When a brown-robed cultivator protests the fee, a guard responds with a humiliating threat to report the man’s sect. The cultivator ultimately agrees to pay.
• Mo Chen offers to use a spare teleportation token, hoping to save money. The brown-robed cultivator then accuses him of possibly stealing it from a slain Emerging Cloud Peak disciple and trying to flee the sect. Mo Chen dismisses him as an idiot and moves away.

Character developments

• Mo Chen remains cautious and practical: he follows sect procedures, seeks a replacement for an important travel artifact, and tries to conserve his limited resources. His understanding of the mysterious old man’s power grows considerably.
• His awe at the teleportation platforms reveals how strongly his mortal upbringing shapes his view of the immortal world.
• The brown-robed cultivator is revealed as resentful and suspicious. After being mocked and pressured over the fee, he turns his hostility toward Mo Chen without evidence.
• The guard displays arrogance and uses the threat of reporting the man’s sect to enforce compliance.

Significant themes

• Immortal grandeur and inequality: Emerging Cloud Peak’s magnificent infrastructure contrasts with the high costs imposed on ordinary cultivators.
• Power and uncertainty: Mo Chen repeatedly revises his estimate of the old man’s strength, emphasizing how much remains beyond his understanding.
• Humiliation and status: The guard exploits the cultivators’ lower standing, while the crowd’s laughter discourages open resistance.
• Practical survival: Mo Chen’s concern with money, transportation, and escape reflects the everyday calculations required to stay safe in the cultivation world.

Character interactions

• A senior steward corrects Mo Chen’s failure to show his sect token, while a hall clerk explains the mission-verification process.
• Mo Chen exchanges observations with himself as he takes in the immense teleportation complex and connects the talisman fee to his earlier encounter with the old man.
• The guard publicly intimidates the complaining cultivator; Mo Chen intervenes indirectly by offering a spare token.
• The brown-robed cultivator responds to Mo Chen’s offer with baseless suspicion, and Mo Chen ends the exchange by distancing himself.

Plot points and events

• Mo Chen arrives in Tianzhou City via a high-quality Teleportation Array. Unlike many other travelers, he feels no discomfort, thanks to the Teleportation Token he was given.
• He takes in the city’s striking architecture and busy streets, crowded with vendors selling artifacts, pills, and talismans.
• At a young cultivator’s talisman stall, a brocade-robed man publicly mocks her crude Fire Serpent Talismans. Mo Chen intervenes, pointing out that she advertised low prices—not high-quality goods—and that the man is deliberately picking a fight.
• The bully notices Mo Chen’s sect token and withdraws. The crowd disperses, leaving Mo Chen and the girl at the stall.
• Mo Chen examines the talismans and realizes that, although the drawings are rough, the paper is unusually high quality. He suspects the girl has access to a valuable source of talisman paper and considers how he might benefit from learning about it.

Character developments

• Mo Chen regrets having spoken rashly earlier, recognizing that his limited strength makes unnecessary confrontations dangerous. Yet he still steps in when he sees the girl being bullied. His defense is partly principled, but his deeper motive is practical: he wants to investigate her paper supply.
• The young talisman seller is inexperienced and intimidated by the crowd and the bully, but she has some talent, shown by her high number of successful talismans. Her skill with the brush remains poor.
• The brocade-robed man is established as a manipulative bully who targets the seller and backs down when he realizes Mo Chen may be protected by his sect affiliation.

Character interactions

• Mo Chen avoids engaging with a man who earlier tried to burden him with complaints, reflecting his caution after a rash decision.
• At the stall, he confronts the brocade-robed man with a logical defense of the girl, causing the man to retreat.
• The girl thanks Mo Chen, but his reply—claiming he is also motivated by profit—keeps her from assuming he acted out of pure kindness.

Significant themes

• Caution versus intervention: Mo Chen knows that speaking up can make enemies, but chooses to act when confronted with unfairness.
• Appearance versus hidden value: The talismans look poor because of their crude runes, yet their exceptional paper makes them potentially valuable.
• Self-interest beneath apparent virtue: Mo Chen helps the girl, but his interest in uncovering her supplier reveals that his motives are mixed.
• Power and intimidation: The bully’s confidence fades when he recognizes Mo Chen’s sect token, showing how status can shape public confrontations.

Plot points and events

• Mo Chen meets Zhu Shengxia, a young cultivator selling roughly made talismans and talisman paper. She explains that she began making them to pay for treatment for her ill grandfather.
• Interested in her supplies, Mo Chen follows her to the Fu’an Inn. He offers to buy 5,000 sheets of talisman paper at the price of new stock, plus a talisman brush and cinnabar ink.
• Mo Chen examines Zhu Shengxia’s grandfather and finds severe damage caused by prolonged exposure to extreme cold and heat, though his meridians are not ruptured.
• Zhu Shengxia explains that her family served the Jade Transformation Sect. After a factional struggle, the victorious faction killed her parents and siblings and tortured her grandfather. A sect official, Li Suling, is now pressuring her for the Zhu family’s Talisman-Making Insights.
• Li Suling arrives unexpectedly. Mo Chen suppresses his aura and hides among the supplies while Zhu Shengxia lets Li in.
• Li questions Zhu Shengxia’s explanation for staying home, then sends his Divine Sense toward Mo Chen’s hiding place. The chapter ends as it reaches him.

Character developments

• Mo Chen shows generosity by offering a fair price for Zhu Shengxia’s neglected stock. He also demonstrates medical knowledge, caution, and confidence in his ability to hide.
• Zhu Shengxia emerges as resourceful but vulnerable: she is trying to support her grandfather and survive the persecution of her family. Her anxiety rises when Li arrives.
• Li Suling is established as a threatening, calculating antagonist who uses his position to pursue the Zhu family’s knowledge.

Character interactions

• Mo Chen treats Zhu Shengxia respectfully and offers help without exploiting her hardship.
• Zhu Shengxia confides in Mo Chen about her family’s destruction and her grandfather’s torture.
• Mo Chen takes control of the immediate danger by hiding, while Zhu Shengxia tries to maintain a believable front for Li.
• Li’s probing questions and use of Divine Sense put both of them at risk.

Significant themes

• Persecution and abuse of power: The Jade Transformation Sect’s political struggle devastates the Zhu family, including people with little influence.
• Compassion amid hardship: Mo Chen’s fair offer and willingness to examine the grandfather contrast with the exploitation Zhu Shengxia faces.
• Survival through vigilance and deception: Mo Chen relies on concealment, while Zhu Shengxia must manage Li’s suspicion.
• Family loyalty: Zhu Shengxia’s efforts to earn money are driven by her determination to care for her grandfather.

Key plot points

• Steward Li visits Zhu Shengxia’s room and searches it with his divine sense. Mo Chen stays hidden, and Zhu convincingly explains the talisman papers and herbs.
• Before leaving, Steward Li reminds Zhu that she owes him for arranging her stall and pressures her to uncover the Zhu Lineage’s talisman-making secret.
• Once he is gone, Zhu explains that Li Suling is targeting her and her sick grandfather as part of a purge of the Jade Transformation Sect’s old faction. He is pressuring her to become his concubine and uses a secret tracking mark to keep her from fleeing.
• The mark can be removed with mind-dazing incense and spirit-erasing sand, rare and costly ingredients found in the Half-Limit Secret Realm.
• Mo Chen recalls that he is already headed to the realm as an Immortal Alliance member. He offers to look for the ingredients, and Zhu promises the Zhu Lineage’s talisman-making secret in return if he succeeds.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen stays composed under Steward Li’s search, then shifts from helping Zhu conceal him to seeking a way to free her. His knowledge of the Immortal Alliance and the secret realm gives Zhu a possible escape from her predicament.
• Zhu Shengxia is quick-witted and protective of Mo Chen during the inspection, but reveals how powerless and trapped she feels under Li Suling’s coercion. Mo Chen’s offer gives her renewed hope, prompting her to kneel and make a serious bargain.
• Steward Li is suspicious and self-serving: he pressures Zhu for her family’s secret while invoking his supposed favor to keep her indebted.

Significant themes

• Power and coercion: Li Suling exploits his position and Zhu’s vulnerable circumstances to control her.
• Loyalty and family duty: Zhu remains to care for her ill grandfather despite the danger.
• Hope through cooperation: Mo Chen’s journey to the secret realm may provide a path to Zhu’s freedom, while her family’s secret offers a potential exchange.

Key plot points and events

• Mo Chen and Zhu Shenxia finalize a conditional trade: he must survive the Half-Limit Secret Realm before they can complete it. If he returns and the mark on him is removed, she will also copy her household’s secret manual for him.
• Mo Chen gives Zhu Shenxia the leftover Antidote Powder from his sect mission and leaves. He reflects on how tragedy forced her to grow up and take on the burdens of her family and business.
• Following Zhu Shenxia’s recommendation, Mo Chen visits the Fated Treasures Hall to look for support items and a flying artifact. The shop has strict security and admits cultivators of his level to its second floor.
• An attendant explains that the shop’s transportation artifacts are sold out, then presents two support items: a Soft Spirit Pearl that disrupts nearby opponents’ Dharma Power, and a Dustless Plain Beizi that improves the wearer’s speed and lightness. Mo Chen remains noncommittal.
• After learning that Mo Chen practices a fire cultivation method, the attendant introduces a batch of Upper Flame Flowers, claiming they are especially useful to fire cultivators. The chapter ends before she explains their full effects.

Character developments

• Mo Chen is cautious and observant, keeping his intentions guarded during negotiations. He also shows sympathy for Zhu Shenxia’s difficult circumstances, while remaining skeptical of the attendant’s sales tactics.
• Zhu Shenxia appears solemn and businesslike while arranging the trade, but her tearful farewell reveals her emotional side beneath her forced maturity.
• The shop attendant is polished and persistent, presenting wares strategically and adjusting her pitch once she learns Mo Chen’s cultivation attribute.

Significant themes

• Forced maturity and resilience: Zhu Shenxia has had to become shrewd and responsible after her household’s calamity.
• Mutual need and conditional trust: Mo Chen and Zhu Shenxia agree to help one another, but only once he survives the secret realm and fulfills his part.
• Caution in commerce: Mo Chen and the attendant both manage what they reveal, making the shop visit a quiet contest of persuasion.
• Power and access: The Fated Treasures Hall’s guards, restrictions, and tiered floors signal its influence and the importance of cultivation rank.

Character interactions

• Mo Chen and Zhu Shenxia part on warm but guarded terms, each acknowledging the conditions of their future arrangement.
• At the Fated Treasures Hall, guards and staff treat Mo Chen courteously while checking his cultivation and directing him to the appropriate floor.
• In a private room, Mo Chen and the attendant discuss his needs and inspect projected items. Their polite exchange carries an undercurrent of mutual skepticism as she tries to sell and he resists committing.

Key plot points and events

• At the Fated Treasures Hall, Mo Chen refuses Yu Luoyan’s persistent sales pitch for Upper Flame Flowers. She eventually offers a discount, and he agrees to buy them along with a Soft Spirit Pearl and a Dustless Plain Beizi.
• Mo Chen tests the pearl, which slows the circulation of spiritual power, and inspects the robe’s enchantments. He pays 850 spirit stones in total, then leaves without giving Yu Luoyan more than his surname.
• After admiring how the new robe looks on him, Mo Chen goes to the Radiant Peace Pavilion to find a flying Magic Artifact.
• A skilled saleswoman explains that flying artifacts are scarce and prices are high. With no Flying Boats in stock, she presents a Red Feather Golden Thread Scroll for 650 spirit stones. Mo Chen objects that it is fragile and accuses her of trying to test his means.

Character developments

• Mo Chen remains cautious and practical with money, but is willing to pay for items he considers useful. He also shows a vain, playful side when he checks his appearance in the new robe.
• Yu Luoyan is persistent and commercially savvy, but her friendliness fades when Mo Chen declines to reciprocate her personal overtures.
• The Radiant Peace Pavilion’s saleswoman appears composed and experienced, immediately steering the negotiation around the scarcity of flying artifacts.

Significant themes

• Practicality and value: Mo Chen weighs an item’s usefulness and durability against its price.
• Commerce and persuasion: Both shops use sales tactics, while Mo Chen tries to resist pressure and protect his bargaining position.
• Status and personal rapport: Yu Luoyan’s offer of goodwill receives a cold response, exposing the gap between professional courtesy and personal interest.

Character interactions

• Yu Luoyan repeatedly tries to sell Mo Chen Upper Flame Flowers, then processes his purchase and asks his name; he remains distant.
• At the Radiant Peace Pavilion, Mo Chen rejects spirit-beast alternatives and challenges the saleswoman’s expensive, vulnerable artifact, setting a more confrontational tone for the negotiation.

Key plot points and events

• Mo Chen rejects the Red Feather Golden Thread Scroll because its defensive transformation leaves it dangerously slow. He buys a Windlike Token instead: it carries six people and flies at roughly seventy percent of a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s speed.
• Back in his cave, he successfully makes Fire Serpent Technique talismans using paper from the Zhu household. His first batch achieves a much better success rate than his earlier attempts.
• At the Lucky Brocade Teahouse, Mo Chen overhears cultivators discussing the capture and trafficking of more than ten thousand low-level cultivators. The scandal implicates Haiyanhui, while Ao Kuo of the Foothills of Myriad Screen Mountain is praised for taking the displaced people in.
• The teahouse talk also reveals that Ao Kuo may soon lead the Immortal Alliance, and that the Half-Limit Secret Realm will open next year with access extended a hundred li deeper. Participants can skip sect missions, receive triple their stipend, and potentially earn a thousand chips for bringing back requested materials.
• Tempted by the rewards—and already committed to bringing Zhu Shengxia items from the realm—Mo Chen decides he will go.

Character developments

• Mo Chen continues to improve his practical skills and equipment, choosing a fast, maneuverable artifact and demonstrating growing competence at talisman-making.
• Hearing about widespread abductions makes him more wary. He recognizes that cultivators are vulnerable to stronger practitioners, and suspects that supposedly righteous sects may have ties to the Demonic Path.
• Despite his caution, Mo Chen is also ambitious and resource-conscious: the secret realm’s rewards quickly persuade him to take the risk.

Significant themes

• Predation and moral ambiguity: Cultivators and demon beasts are hunted for resources, while powerful cultivators prey on weaker people. The distinction between righteous and demonic factions appears uncertain.
• Survival and cultivation costs: Advancing one’s spiritual roots depends on scarce resources such as five elements essence, creating pressure that can fuel exploitation and violence.
• Opportunity versus danger: The secret realm offers wealth and advancement, but its deeper, newly opened area may make survival harder.
• Rumor and political power: Public scandals and speculation about alliance leadership shape how cultivators judge sects and plan for the future.

Character interactions

• The artifact seller patiently explains the Windlike Token and lets Mo Chen test it, helping him make his purchase.
• In the teahouse, groups of cultivators trade rumors and opinions about the trafficking scandal, sect reputations, and the Immortal Alliance’s future leadership.
• A lively group debating the secret realm’s risks and rewards shifts from hesitation to enthusiasm when they learn about the increased stipend and potential payout—an exchange that influences Mo Chen’s decision.

Plot and events

• While listening at a teahouse, Mo Chen learns the history and rules of the Half-Limit Secret Realm.
• The realm was once High Person Longyan’s domain, rich in spirit veins and springs. His power and promise to spread cultivation drew followers into the Longyan Cult, provoking the Dragon Suppression War. Longyan fought ten Spirit Transformation experts, killing four and badly wounding the rest before dying.
• Seventeen less-damaged sects took control of the conquered resources and grew into the Immortal Alliance.
• Longyan’s two immense formations still divide the Yuanchi Northern Wasteland. The Half-Limit Secret Realm restricts movement according to cultivation level; the nearby Heavenly Prison traps those imprisoned by the Alliance. A dragon scale held by the Alliance’s leader can control parts of the formations, while a second, missing scale may offer broader access.
• The Alliance sends Qi Refining cultivators into the realm every twenty years to gather resources. Mo Chen visits the Myriad Chips Hall and learns that volunteers receive substantial rewards, including a thousand chips, a year free of assignments, and triple stipends. Most importantly, entrants receive soup made from Sky-Climbing Vine shoots.

Character development and interactions

• Mo Chen listens carefully to other cultivators, then seeks official details at the Myriad Chips Hall.
• The revelation about Sky-Climbing Vine connects the expedition to a previous request from the strange old man beneath Maozhou: Mo Chen was told to steal a piece of its stem. He decides he must join, seeing the expedition as both a source of rewards and a chance to investigate the vine.

Significant themes

• Power and historical upheaval: Longyan’s rise and fall reshaped the cultivation world, enabling the Immortal Alliance’s ascent.
• Control and imprisonment: The formations turn the Northern Wasteland into a vast, nearly inescapable prison.
• Self-interest and opportunity: The Alliance’s expedition offers cultivators incentives while serving its broader resource-gathering ambitions.
• Destiny through practical choices: Mo Chen’s decision is driven by a personal clue hidden within an ostensibly routine expedition.

Key plot points and events

• Mo Chen calculates that he has just over ten months before the Half-Limit Secret Realm opens, but must travel there early. He accepts one final five-chip sect assignment—investigating disturbed graves near Changshu City—so he can spend the months before departure cultivating and obtain Five Elements Essence.
• The assignment supplies him with talismans, a Demon-Binding Rope, and a token covering teleportation fees. On the way to Changshu, he detours through Ju’an City to have his dormant snake demon identified.
• At the crowded Tianxiang Beast Appraisal Pavilion, an overeager disciple examines the snake using a large illustrated guide. He identifies it as a Red-Bellied Nether Chi, dormant while advancing and expected to reach Initial Form in at least six months. Mo Chen learns that demon beasts have their own cultivation stages and innate divine abilities, distinct from human cultivation.
• The appraisal costs three spirit stones. Mo Chen leaves to explore the city, unaware that two men are following him.
• The men recognize his snake as an Ancient Exotic Beast Feiyi and scheme to lure him outside the city, where the City Guard cannot protect him. They recruit additional muscle and spot a mortal woman carrying kitchen slops, apparently seeing her as a way to create an opening.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen shows careful planning: he organizes his cultivation schedule, chooses a manageable assignment, and uses the covered journey to investigate his snake’s identity. His skeptical, sharp-tongued reaction to the appraiser contrasts with his genuine curiosity about demon-beast lore.
• The appraiser’s disciple is boastful and commercially minded, but provides useful information and a practical feeding guide. Mo Chen doubts his method but accepts the inexpensive appraisal.
• The brocade-robed young man and his lackey reveal themselves as predatory opportunists. The boss is confident in his secret appraisal ability; the lackey is impatient and less perceptive. Their shared interest in Mo Chen’s beast turns his ordinary city stop into a potential ambush.

Significant themes

• Preparation and resourcefulness: Mo Chen plans ahead, balances sect obligations with cultivation, and makes use of available travel benefits.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: The appraisal expands his understanding of demon beasts, while its guidebook-based method leaves room to question how reliable expertise can be.
• Exploitation and danger: The city’s commercial bustle masks threats, as the two men intend to use Mo Chen’s rare beast—and possibly a vulnerable mortal—as a means to trap him.
• Different paths of cultivation: The chapter distinguishes human cultivation from demon-beast advancement, emphasizing that other beings possess their own systems and innate powers.

Key plot points

• Mo Chen finishes eating in Ju’an City and discovers that a woman has been following him. She begs him to rescue her child, who has been kidnapped by two men.
• The kidnappers have forced the woman to lure Mo Chen to a marsh outside the city. They provide her with a paired image-recording pearl so they can document his refusal and report him to the Immortal Alliance.
• Suspecting the trap is connected to his recent visit to a spirit-beast shop, Mo Chen prepares safeguards and an escape route while traveling to the marsh.
• He finds the child stranded on a small mound amid dangerous sludge. Rather than rush into an ambush, he waits; four men emerge from the reeds and surround him.
• The attackers demand that he hand over an exotic Feiyi beast from the shop. Mo Chen pretends to bargain for the child’s release, then vanishes before they can stop him.

Character developments

• Mo Chen shows caution and resourcefulness: he recognizes the trap, plans ahead, and refuses to let the attackers dictate how he approaches the child. He remains composed enough to use deception when cornered.
• The woman is frightened and desperate, but follows the kidnappers’ instructions in hopes of saving her child.
• The four attackers appear confident and coordinated, relying on a hostage, a recording device, and superior numbers. Their demand reveals that their real target is the Feiyi beast.

Significant themes

• Coercion and manipulation: The kidnappers combine physical threats with the prospect of an official complaint to pressure Mo Chen.
• Preparation versus brute force: Mo Chen counters the ambush by anticipating danger rather than rushing to act.
• Appearance and hidden value: The attackers’ interest suggests that the seemingly ordinary spirit beast may be rare or valuable.

Character interactions

• Mo Chen reassures the woman, learns the kidnappers’ instructions, and sends her to wait at the city gate.
• At the marsh, he trades barbs with the bucktoothed attacker while assessing the encirclement.
• When the men refuse to let him retrieve the child first, Mo Chen feigns willingness to surrender the beast—and escapes.

Key plot points and events

• Mo Chen reveals that the figure he had been talking to was a Shallow Afterimage Illusion. While the attackers were distracted, he secretly rescued the child and put them in his Spirit Beast Pouch.
• He immediately ambushes the gray-robed cultivator, the weakest opponent, killing him with the Black Gold Flying Sword before the man can defend himself.
• The three remaining attackers charge. Mo Chen tries to keep them from surrounding him, countering their attacks with six Fire Serpent Talismans and a sword-and-blade-qi barrier that scatters the stone fragments they hurl at him.
• The bucktoothed man, who had burrowed through the sludge, catches Mo Chen with a staff strike while another attacker’s spell briefly immobilizes him. Mo Chen is badly hurt but uses the blood he spits up as fuel for Ghost Shadow Step.
• The blue-robed cultivator unleashes a large mass of swamp water and forms corrosive water blades. Mo Chen recognizes the danger: the blades can erode defenses and harm the body, and the swamp water may also infect any wound.
• With his escape slowed by injury, Mo Chen evades the relentless blades and draws the three pursuers toward a prepared fallback. The chapter ends before that plan is revealed.

Character development

• Mo Chen demonstrates careful preparation and adaptability: he uses an old illusion spell, strikes decisively when an opening appears, and conserves nothing when survival is at stake. Though injured and outnumbered, he keeps his composure and turns even his own blood into a resource.
• The attackers reveal complementary tactics: the bucktoothed man relies on brute force and an ambush, the stubbled man uses earth-based defenses, and the blue-robed cultivator specializes in water manipulation and disabling spells. Their confidence gives way to anger after Mo Chen kills one of their number.

Significant themes

• Preparation and deception: Mo Chen’s illusion and surprise attack give him an advantage over stronger numbers.
• Survival through resourcefulness: He improvises with spells, sword techniques, and even blood to escape.
• The cost of violence: Mo Chen kills to prevent the attackers from discovering his secret, but the fight leaves him seriously injured.
• Escalating danger: Each opponent’s distinct technique compounds the threat, pushing Mo Chen toward a plan beyond simply fighting back.

Character interactions

• Mo Chen deceives the attackers with his illusion and secretly removes the child from danger.
• He kills the gray-robed cultivator, provoking the remaining men to curse him and attack together.
• The three survivors coordinate their techniques, while Mo Chen repeatedly counters them and tries to break away.
• The bucktoothed man’s ambush injures Mo Chen; the blue-robed cultivator then pursues him with corrosive water blades as the others press the attack.

• Mo Chen turns the ambush around: Though wounded and apparently exhausted, he deliberately lets three pursuing cultivators catch up, then traps them with pre-positioned Wind-Binding and Immobility Talismans. He silences them and seals them inside a formation, revealing how thoroughly he has prepared for the confrontation.
• The fight ends in a devastating talisman attack: After the men struggle free of some restraints, Mo Chen uses a powerful Second Tier Wind Blade Talisman. He waits until they have committed to defending themselves, then dismisses the formation, leaving them exposed to the blast. The three attackers are killed, and the wind blades devastate the surrounding woods. Mo Chen retrieves the formation flags and the men’s Storage Bags, then returns cautiously to the city.
• Mo Chen investigates the infant: Once safely near the city gate, he checks the child for injuries and hidden restrictions. His Spiritual Power detects lingering earth energy in the infant’s dantian; after he channels in Five Elements energy, the child resonates with it and retains traces of earth, wood, and water energy.
• A possible destiny is unlocked: Mo Chen suspects that his examination accidentally opened the infant’s “heavenly secret lock,” allowing the child to sense spiritual energy despite the usual doctrine that Spiritual Roots determine access to cultivation. Unsure whether this will help or endanger the child, he leaves three Qi-Gathering Pills in the infant’s hand as a small act of goodwill. The Longevity Lock identifies the child as Liang Baisui.
  Character development and interactions: Mo Chen demonstrates patience, tactical foresight, and a willingness to use deception against the three men, who mock his apparent weakness before realizing they have been outplanned. His encounter with the infant shifts the chapter from survival and revenge to concern for someone vulnerable: he takes responsibility for the child’s safety, though he cannot know what the future holds.
  Significant themes: Preparation can overcome a stronger opponent; power and deception make life outside the city dangerous; and an apparent gift—new access to spiritual energy—may also expose a person to harm. The chapter also contrasts Mo Chen’s ruthless combat tactics with his tentative kindness toward the infant.

Key plot points and events

• After saving a child in Ju’an City, Mo Chen notices several people watching his bulging Storage Bags. He treats his injuries, conceals his Immortal Alliance token, and leaves for Changshu City.
• In Changshu, he asks about reports of grave desecrations but finds that townspeople know nothing about them. An escort-agency owner points him toward Three-Pond Village, where a newly buried woman’s body was disturbed.
• Disguised as an old man, Mo Chen questions village women. When they refuse to discuss the taboo subject, he uses the Gold and Silver Art to turn leaves into gold, winning their cooperation.
• The women recount a year of attacks: corpses of women were mutilated, and later fresh graves were dug up. A priest found no yin energy, and the incidents seemed to stop when no one died.
• Learning that attacks have continued farther west, Mo Chen investigates village by village, paying for information with conjured gold and silver. He eventually reaches Hu Town, where the incidents began.
• As dusk falls, he overhears two elderly women say a daughter-in-law of the Li Household may die that night—and warn that another haunting is expected.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen is cautious and pragmatic: he hides his affiliation and adapts his approach when direct questioning fails. He relies on observation, disguise, travel, and small bribes to pursue the mystery.
• His encounters with the escort owner and village women show how ordinary people avoid entanglement in dangerous events, while Mo Chen steadily gathers their scattered testimony.
• The chapter ends with Mo Chen poised to investigate a possible imminent attack at the Li Household.

Significant themes

• Caution and vulnerability: Visible wealth or identity can attract danger, so Mo Chen carefully manages what he reveals.
• Fear and superstition: Villagers’ grief and dread shape their behavior, even though the cause of the desecrations remains unexplained.
• Information as a resource: Mo Chen must travel, observe, and bargain to piece together the truth.
• Everyday life beside the uncanny: Hu Town’s peaceful evening routines contrast sharply with the threat of another grave-related horror.

Plot points and events

• Mo Chen overhears townspeople discussing a Li Household daughter-in-law who has been gravely injured after falling from a decaying bridge. They recall that the Winter Household once maintained the bridge, but it has since disappeared.
• He notices a boy carrying vegetables who has traces of spiritual power and a faint demonic aura. Mo Chen secretly marks him to track, then waits rather than pursuing him immediately, hoping not to alert whoever is involved.
• After someone forcibly erases the mark, Mo Chen senses that the person responsible is still only at the Qi Refining stage. He reasons that the hidden culprit may be unable to leave Hu Town, where the grave-exhumation and corpse-dismemberment incidents began.
• At the Li Household, Mo Chen discovers that the injured woman is unlikely to survive. He secretly uses spiritual power to stabilize her, keeping her alive for the night. He knowingly turns her situation into bait to draw out the culprit.
• While waiting, Mo Chen examines loot from four cultivators who attacked him earlier. A jade slip reveals that his snake spirit beast is an Exotic Beast called a Feiyi.
• In the third quarter of the chou hour, a huge black figure arrives at the Li Household and transforms into human form. Mo Chen senses a demonic aura and recognizes the visitor as a demon at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen shows patience and tactical restraint: he observes the boy, considers several explanations for his condition, and waits for the suspected culprit to make a move. He also reveals a pragmatic, morally detached streak by keeping the injured woman alive partly to use her as bait, while viewing the intervention as giving her time to say farewell.
• The vegetable-buying boy remains mysterious. His unlocked Heavenly Secret Lock, lack of cultivation, and demonic aura suggest a connection to the hidden threat, but his intentions and circumstances are unknown.
• The injured woman and her family are seen in a moment of distress: her husband sits vigil beside her as she lies near death. Mo Chen intervenes without revealing himself.
• The townspeople’s comments connect the bridge’s disrepair to the disappearance of the Winter Household, which once served as a source of help for the town.

Significant themes

• Patience and strategy: Mo Chen avoids acting prematurely and carefully sets a trap for his target.
• Moral ambiguity: He helps save the woman temporarily, but also treats her precarious life as bait.
• Decline and abandonment: The broken bridge and the vanished Winter Household reflect the town’s loss of protection and care.
• The hidden world within ordinary life: Signs of cultivation and demonic influence emerge amid everyday village routines.

Key events

• Mo Chen watches the winged demon return to its mountain at dawn. He suspects it is constrained by daylight and prepares for a possible aerial fight, hiding formation flags and concealment spells around the woods.
• Disguised as a beggar, he meets Dong Xiaoran, a kind boy who brings him food and offers him lodging. Dong says he lives with his adoptive father on a mountain owned by the Winter Household.
• Mo Chen follows Dong to the secluded mountain and is settled in a house, but Dong goes off to report to his adoptive father. Mo Chen suspects the boy’s mother or household may be linked to the demonic aura, the grave disturbances, and the village’s guarded stories about the Winter Household.
• After hearing that the Li Household’s daughter-in-law has died, Mo Chen observes the family’s mourning rites while hidden nearby. He reflects on ordinary mortal lives and recommits himself to gaining strength and rising in the cultivation world.
• At midnight, four men arrive with the apparent cooperation of the household, remove the body from the mourning hall, and carry it away in a thin coffin. Mo Chen follows them to a river, where they appear ready to throw the coffin in.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen remains cautious and methodical, laying traps while investigating the demon and the Winter Household. His reflections reveal his rejection of a quiet, money-focused life in favor of pursuing power and influence. He also recognizes the value of mourning rituals as a way to remember ordinary people.
• Dong Xiaoran shows compassion by feeding and sheltering Mo Chen, despite his mother’s warning to avoid strangers. His kindness contrasts with the secrecy surrounding his family.
• The Li Household mourns the deceased and follows customary funeral rites, yet later cooperates in the unexplained removal of her body.
• Mo Chen and Dong Xiaoran build a tentative connection through the boy’s generosity, while Mo Chen secretly investigates him and his household. Mo Chen has no direct interaction with the men carrying the coffin; he shadows them from concealment.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and suspicion: The Winter Household’s history, Dong’s family circumstances, and the grave disturbances appear connected, but the truth remains hidden.
• Mortality and remembrance: Mo Chen reflects on how mourning preserves the memory of ordinary lives.
• Strength and survival: He concludes that wealth and security are fragile, while personal power is essential in a dangerous cultivation world.
• The uncanny in ordinary customs: The secretive removal of the body turns familiar funeral practices into a troubling mystery.

Summary

Key events

• The Li family attempts to sink a deceased woman’s coffin in the river, hoping to protect her body from a corpse-stealing demon. When a sinister wind arrives, the family panics and flees. A white-robed, handless demon returns the coffin to shore and prepares to take the corpse.
• Mo Chen attacks from hiding. The demon counters with Wind Blades, a mind-disrupting screech, and swarms of animated leaves and leaf-shaped birds. Mo Chen uses his flying sword, fire spells, protective talismans, and Ghost Shadow Step to fight back.
• Mo Chen discovers that the demon can temporarily surge to Foundation Establishment-level power, though its strength later falls. He evades its devastating attack by escaping underground, then tries to bind it with a Demon-Binding Rope.
• The demon dodges the rope, tears off the corpse’s arms, and vanishes into the night. Mo Chen finds the body mutilated and prepares to bury it—but the demon’s Foundation Establishment aura returns overhead, revealing it never truly left and may be waiting to ambush him.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen shifts from reluctant observer to determined combatant. He relies on preparation and tactical adaptation, learns that the demon’s leaf attacks cannot fully track him, and recognizes when direct confrontation is too dangerous. He remains frustrated by the demon’s tricks and by his inability to protect the body.
• The white-robed demon proves clever and highly dangerous: it uses the corpse as leverage, combines physical skill with varied spells, and conceals the limits and fluctuations of its power. Its repeated attempts to seize the body—and its final ambush—suggest a deliberate, continuing purpose.
• The Li family are divided between grief and fear. The eldest brother wants one last look at his wife, while his younger brother urges him to leave, arguing that surrendering the body is the only way to prevent worse desecration. Their desperate choice to abandon the coffin allows Mo Chen to confront the demon.

Significant themes

• Grief versus survival: The family’s mourning is overtaken by terror, forcing them to choose between honoring the dead and protecting the living.
• Moral limits and responsibility: Mo Chen hesitates to interfere in another family’s affairs, but intervenes once the demon acts—without being able to prevent the corpse’s desecration.
• Strategy over strength: Mo Chen survives through observation, spell combinations, mobility, and retreat rather than matching the demon’s temporary power directly.
• Uncertainty and hidden motives: The demon’s transformations and sudden return leave its true nature and intentions unresolved.

Plot points and events

• Mo Chen narrowly avoids the white-robed demon cultivator’s attacks. After their evenly matched fight, she abandons the coffin and escapes; Mo Chen later buries the armless corpse out of respect for the dead.
• Mo Chen connects the demon’s aura to Dong Xiaoran, a mortal whose Heavenly Secret Lock has been opened, and suspects the young man and the demon are linked. He returns to his prepared hiding place, expecting the demon to be weakened by the secret art she used to boost her strength.
• The demon flies to a secluded mountain and replaces her own shriveled arms with the freshly severed arms of the Li Household’s daughter-in-law. She says the new limbs should last about two hundred days, then transforms into a giant peacock and departs.
• The next morning, Dong Xiaoran tells Mo Chen that his mother wants him to leave. Over breakfast, Mo Chen hears singing from the Winter Household’s hill. Despite Dong’s warning not to disturb the singer, Mo Chen doubles back and follows the familiar demonic aura.
• Inside a cottage, Mo Chen finds the demon—now identified as Dan Die—singing and performing a courtly dance for a disabled old man. Dong Xiaoran calls her “Godmother,” confirming their close relationship.
• Dan Die asks to speak rather than fight. Mo Chen remains wary, keeping his weapons ready and his formations nearby. He warns that his sect’s follow-up review makes further grave disturbances unacceptable, and demands evidence before he will trust her.
• Dan Die begins explaining that the grave desecrations are only the visible surface of a larger matter, but the chapter ends before she reveals the full truth.

Character developments and interactions

• Mo Chen shows quick reflexes and strategic caution, but also compassion: he gives the dead woman a proper burial. His suspicions about Dong Xiaoran deepen, though he remains willing to hear Dan Die out.
• Dan Die is revealed as a woman who can transform into a peacock and must periodically replace her damaged arms. Her calm manner and reluctance to fight complicate Mo Chen’s assumption that she is simply an evil cultivator.
• Dong Xiaoran appears torn between loyalty to his family and concern for Dan Die. He tries to keep Mo Chen away from the singer, then obeys Dan Die’s request to leave.
• The disabled old man is introduced as someone important to Dan Die and Dong Xiaoran, though his condition and role remain unexplained.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus truth: The apparent grave-robbing case may conceal a broader story, and Dan Die challenges Mo Chen’s tendency to judge before knowing all the facts.
• Duty and compassion: Mo Chen balances his sect mission and its consequences with respect for the dead and a willingness to listen.
• Hidden connections and secrets: Dong Xiaoran’s bond with Dan Die, the old man, and the Winter Household’s faded grandeur suggest a concealed history.
• The cost of survival: Dan Die’s stolen limbs and repeated use of a dangerous secret art point to the physical price of whatever she is trying to accomplish.