Chapter Summaries

Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er explored the ancient temple and found Purple Mansion spirit water and a sealed Purple Mansion spirit flame in its Elixir Chamber. After abandoning the guarded Scripture Repository, they witnessed the sky split open.

• Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er searched the temple's refectory and guest rooms but found nothing of value.
• Jiang Yang discovered a milky-white Purple Mansion spirit flame sealed in the Elixir Chamber's Fire Pit, while Tai Pei'er collected Purple Mansion spirit water from the basin.
• Tai Pei'er offered to share the spirit water with Jiang Yang, but he refused and suggested they discuss it after leaving.
• Jiang Yang inspected the spirit array guarding the Scripture Repository and decided they could not break through it.
• A terrifying thunderclap sounded as Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er turned away, and they saw the sky split open.

As the Black Stratagem cracked under a vast upheaval, Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er entered the failing Scripture Repository in search of an inheritance. Jiang Yang found a profound longevity method, while Tai Pei'er recognized a sacred platform and began worshipping before it.

• The Black Stratagem and the Immortal Island shook, and Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er feared that a Golden Nature demon was breaking free.
• Tai Pei'er recalled her ancestor's warning about her tendency toward blind optimism, but chose to press on with Jiang Yang.
• Tai Pei'er noticed that the Scripture Repository's spirit array had cracked, and she and Jiang Yang entered after it collapsed.
• Tai Pei'er searched the repository for Taiyin teachings but found none among its scriptures.
• Jiang Yang read the golden scroll titled “Secret Formula of the Manifest Dao of Profound Shelter, Primordial Nurturing, and Hidden Radiance” and tucked it away.
• Tai Pei'er knelt before the central Mystic Platform, bowing repeatedly to fulfill what she called the Immortal Edict.

Tai Pei'er touched an ancient scroll and fell under a strange influence, which Jiang Yang broke before she recovered with no memory of what happened. She found a Taiyin inheritance on the scroll, and Jiang Yang suggested her earlier state might have come from a connection to an ancient figure.

• Tai Pei'er touched the golden scroll and became reverent and unresponsive, prompting Jiang Yang to use Conjoined Branch and strike her head to wake her.
• Tai Pei'er recalled glimpsing a torrent of profound principles but could remember none of their details.
• Tai Pei'er opened the scroll and found the [Hengyue Illuminating Shadow and Clarifying Light Dao Chapter], a Taiyin cultivation art.
• Jiang Yang told Tai Pei'er what she had done while under the strange influence, and she was alarmed by the blank in her memory.
• Jiang Yang suggested Tai Pei'er had accidentally connected with an ancient figure, and she reasoned that receiving the inheritance was likely a good thing.

Tai Pei'er and Jiang Yang escaped the Scripture Repository as the grotto-heaven broke apart, and Tai Pei'er realized the Clear Spring lay on the Immortal Islands. At the spring, the wounded Chongya recovered enough to scheme for a human carrier to take the golden nature into the Mortal World.

• Tai Pei'er thanked Jiang Yang for saving her, and Jiang Yang took the unopened final scroll from the desk as they left the Scripture Repository.
• Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er saw the sky split open, the Three Black Islands lose their bridges and chains, and a gravely wounded Purple Mansion cultivator flee into the Great Void.
• Tai Pei'er realized the Clear Spring was on the Immortal Islands and urged Jiang Yang toward another island before they reached the Mortal World.
• Chongya drank and bathed in the Clear Spring, suppressing the Heaven-Enveloping true fire that tormented him.
• Chongya considered how to preserve the golden nature he had seized and concluded that he needed a human body to carry it into the Mortal World.

Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er discovered the Clear-Heaven Spring, but found an injured spirit crane there. After their attempts to leave, the crane admitted that it needed a favor and promised them a genuine opportunity in return.

• Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er followed the spring through the valley and entered a cavern filled with dense spirit vigor.
• Jiang Yang spotted bloodstains leading to an injured spirit crane beside the Clear-Heaven Spring.
• The spirit crane spoke to Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er, asking where their elders were and offering them an opportunity.
• Jiang Yang claimed their family's True Person was nearby and tried to draw out the crane's identity.
• Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er turned to leave despite the spring's value, and the crane revealed that no Purple Mansion cultivators were nearby and asked them to come forward.

The injured Calamity Crow disguised himself as a White-Feathered Crane and tried to lure Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er closer, but their powerful destinies resisted his divine power. Realizing their arrival might be part of his lord’s design, he offered them treasures and asked them to carry his legacy out of Southern Peak.

• The Calamity Crow disguised himself as an injured White-Feathered Crane beside the Clear-Heaven Spring and waited for Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er.
• The crow activated All Enveloped in Gloom, but saw Tai Pei'er’s Taiyin destiny and Jiang Yang’s sword intent and could not influence either of them.
• Zhou Chu realized how suspiciously convenient their arrival was and suspected his lord was still manipulating him.
• The crow abandoned his attempt to beguile the pair and pressured them to approach by claiming he had an opportunity to offer.
• Jiang Yang stayed cautious while Tai Pei'er discreetly warned him, and the crow claimed he was dying and needed someone to deliver a letter and preserve his dao lineage.
• The crow revealed Purple Mansion-level treasures and resources, offered one item to each of them, and argued that they could not resist him if he meant them harm.

The Evil Crow, disguised as a wounded Spirit Crane, tried to persuade Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er to deliver a letter to the Ascension to Mystery Dao in exchange for Spirit Treasures. Tai Pei'er recognized the sect and agreed to approach its current leader, while the Evil Crow waited for one of them to accept its feather so it could seize that person's body.

• Jiang Yang questioned why the Spirit Crane needed them to deliver a letter and asked about its injuries and the task's risks.
• The Spirit Crane admitted that a fight in the grotto-heaven had left it gravely wounded and named Crane Embryo Mountain in the Wu Kingdom as the destination.
• Tai Pei'er recognized the Ascension to Mystery Dao and asked whether the Spirit Crane was the Plainfeather Embryonic Immortal; it denied the title and named True Person Zhaoshi as the recipient.
• Tai Pei'er told the Spirit Crane that Zhaoshi had died and that True Person Yi Yun now oversaw the mountain, then asked whether the Spirit Crane trusted them with its treasures.
• The Evil Crow offered its white feather as a token and invited them to choose Spirit Treasures, secretly intending to seize whichever body accepted it.

Tai Pei'er realized the Spirit Crane was a deceptive and dangerous being, and tried to arrange for Jiang Yang to escape while she stayed behind. When the creature abruptly reversed its decision, Jiang Yang recognized its Golden Nature aura as that of a demon and used a talisman to flee with Tai Pei'er, but the demon knocked them out of the wind and sent them falling before it.

• Tai Pei'er grew suspicious of the Spirit Crane after it readily accepted names and claims that did not fit the history of the Mystery Dao Gate.
• She proposed that one of the two deliver the creature's letter while the other stayed behind as a hostage, and the Spirit Crane agreed on the condition that the courier carry a Plain Feather in their Dharma Body.
• Tai Pei'er volunteered to remain behind, but Jiang Yang argued that he should deliver the letter; the Spirit Crane then unexpectedly changed its mind and ordered Tai Pei'er to go instead.
• Jiang Yang recognized the Spirit Crane's leaked aura as Golden Nature and realized it was a demon, not an injured Purple Mansion cultivator.
• Jiang Yang seized Tai Pei'er and activated his Unimpeded Wind Patrol Talisman, but the demon revealed its true form and forced them out of the Xun Wind, sending them tumbling before it.

Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er were trapped by the Evil Crow, which tried to seize Tai Pei'er's body using a Golden Feather. Tai Pei'er froze herself and the intruder with the Moon-Cold Curse, giving Jiang Yang a chance to use his lifespan-cutting method against the weakened crow.

• The Evil Crow shattered Tai Pei'er's Jade Ruyi and dragged Jiang Yang and the wounded Tai Pei'er into Cave Spring.
• The Evil Crow spat out its Golden Nature as a Golden Feather and tried to insert it between Tai Pei'er's brows to seize her body.
• Tai Pei'er cast the Moon-Cold Curse, freezing her True Spirit and Dharma Body to trap the Golden Feather and its wielder.
• Jiang Yang saw that the Evil Crow's lifespan became visible after it expelled its Golden Nature, and prepared to sacrifice his own lifespan to cut away its remaining years.
• Jiang Yang completed the Spirit-Leaking Hub-Cutting incantation as the Evil Crow sensed the danger and shrieked.

Jiang Yang used the Lifespan-Cutting Method to kill the Evil Crow, but the strike left him severely weakened. He saved Tai Pei'er and absorbed the Plain Feather into the Peach Branch, then discovered his hair had turned white.

• Jiang Yang used the Hub-Cutting Profound Light to cut away the Evil Crow's remaining lifespan, despite the cost to his own strength.
• The Evil Crow's forms and aura crumbled until he dissolved into smoke and dust, leaving only tribulation ashes.
• Jiang Yang found Tai Pei'er unconscious and weakening, then placed the Golden Osmanthus Moon Medicine beneath her tongue to preserve her life.
• Jiang Yang tried to move the Plain Feather, but the Peach Branch absorbed it and held it like a golden fruit.
• Jiang Yang carried Tai Pei'er to the spring and saw that his hair had turned completely white.

Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er slept in a Spirit Vigor spring while the grotto-heaven collapsed and secret realms scattered across the land. Lin Xi Yu found the missing Jiang Yang and woke him, leaving him to explain his condition and the woman in his arms.

• Jiang Yang accepted the loss of about thirty years of lifespan and fell asleep with Tai Pei'er in the spring, where pure Spirit Vigor nourished their bodies and Immortal Foundations.
• The grotto-heaven continued to collapse, scattering secret realms and treasures across the Mortal World as cultivators rushed to claim them.
• More than ten days later, Lin Xi Yu expelled several minor cultivators from a newly discovered secret realm while searching for Jiang Yang.
• Lin Xi Yu and Lin Xiuyi searched Xianyu after learning Jiang Yang had vanished, and Lin Xi Yu eventually found him and Tai Pei'er in a Cave Spring.
• Lin Xi Yu pulled them from the spring and woke Jiang Yang, then remarked on his good fortune in having a beauty beside him even when calamity struck.

Jiang Yang woke in a secret realm in northern Xianyu after the upheaval and asked Lin Xi Yu to help Tai Pei'er, who had fallen into a false death from spell art backlash. After explaining how they entered the Grotto-Heaven, he left with Lin Xi Yu and remembered there was another opportunity to pursue.

• Lin Xi Yu found Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er in a secret realm in northern Xianyu and told him the upheaval had ended.
• Jiang Yang asked Lin Xi Yu to examine Tai Pei'er, and she diagnosed a false death caused by spell art backlash that required a Taiyin cultivator to undo.
• Jiang Yang recounted how he and Tai Pei'er entered the Grotto-Heaven, while concealing some details about her abilities.
• Lin Xi Yu decided to take Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er away, and Jiang Yang collected the remaining Tao Spring in a jade bottle.
• After they left the secret realm, Jiang Yang stopped Lin Xi Yu, saying there was another opportunity to pursue.

Jiang Yang told Lin Xi Yu about a Purple Mansion-grade Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Flame, and she arranged for Lin Xiuyi to retrieve it while returning with Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er to Far-Reaching City. Lin Xi Yu began planning how to make the Zheng Kingdom share responsibility for Tai Pei'er's treatment, then discovered Jiang Yang had earned over thirteen hundred battle merit points and urged him to spend them on an expensive reward.

• Jiang Yang told Lin Xi Yu about the spirit flame in the Elixir Chamber, and she sent Lin Xiuyi to retrieve it discreetly.
• Lin Xi Yu brought Jiang Yang and Tai Pei'er back to Far-Reaching City and planned to involve Tai Fuwei and Prince Jing in resolving Tai Pei'er's situation.
• Lin Xi Yu told Jiang Yang that Tai Fuwei would arrive within a few days and that they would seek treatment and call on their connections.
• Lin Xi Yu inspected Jiang Yang's Heavenly Directorate Token and found he had earned more than thirteen hundred battle merit points.
• Lin Xi Yu urged Jiang Yang to redeem his merit for a valuable Purple Mansion Spirit Treasure and make Lu Xinghuai pay dearly.

Jiang Yang declined the Heaven and Earth Spirit Fire that Lin Xiuyi had retrieved, and Lin Xi Yu decided to find a suitable buyer for it. Back in his courtyard, Jiang Yang discovered his cultivation had reached Foundation Establishment peak and chose to save his remaining Spirit Peach for a future breakthrough before tallying his Southern Peak gains.

• Lin Xiuyi brought Lin Xi Yu the pearl flame he had recovered from the Elixir Chamber, and Jiang Yang offered it to the two True Persons as thanks.
• Lin Xiuyi refused the flame, and Lin Xi Yu proposed finding a buyer whose Dao lineage and pill refining suited it.
• Jiang Yang returned to his courtyard and discovered his cultivation had quietly reached Foundation Establishment peak, with his immortal foundation ready for a possible breakthrough.
• Jiang Yang put away his remaining West Peak Spirit Peach to reserve its spirit vigor for his breakthrough.
• Jiang Yang opened his Storage Bag and began tallying the gains from his journey into Southern Peak.

Jiang Yang examined the treasures he had brought back from the Grotto-Heaven, including a sealed Purple Mansion artifact and an unopenable Dao scroll, while deciding to leave the mysterious Peach Branch alone. The next day, Tai Fuwei arrived to see Tai Pei'er, and Lin Xi Yu proposed seeking Lu Xinghuai's help despite the risks.

• Jiang Yang inspected a gourd he had taken from an offering altar and recognized it as a Purple Mansion Spirit Artifact, though its powers remained unknown.
• Jiang Yang checked that the spirit spring water in his jade bottle had retained its spirit vigor and stored it away for possible future use.
• Jiang Yang examined two golden scrolls, but a Dao barrier kept him from opening one, so he put it away until he attained divine powers.
• Jiang Yang tried to examine the Peach Branch in his Sea of Consciousness, then gave up and waited to see whether it posed any danger.
• Tai Fuwei arrived and examined Tai Pei'er, whose life remained in danger, then heard Lin Xi Yu and Jiang Yang explain what had happened in the Grotto-Heaven.
• Lin Xi Yu proposed seeking Lu Xinghuai's help, and Tai Fuwei questioned whether the plan would work.

Lu Xinghuai agreed to find a Three Yin or Taiyin True Person to help treat Tai Fuwei’s injured junior, after Lin Xi Yu maneuvered him into accepting the request. After Lin Xi Yu left, Lu Xinghuai learned that the Sword Immortal had redeemed his prized Prosperity Qi from the treasury.

• Lu Xinghuai welcomed Tai Fuwei and Lin Xi Yu, then listened as Tai Fuwei sought help for an injured Foundation Establishment junior.
• Lin Xi Yu explained that the injury required aid from a Three Yin lineage, preferably a Taiyin True Person, and Lu Xinghuai promised to find a suitable candidate through his connections.
• Tai Fuwei thanked Lu Xinghuai, and Lin Xi Yu asked where Rain Xiang Mountain’s disciples should settle their battle merits; Lu Xinghuai directed them to the Dingyuan General's Residence.
• A messenger told Lu Xinghuai that the Sword Immortal had redeemed the fortune receiving heart-penetrating Prosperity Qi from the treasury.
• Lu Xinghuai learned that Zhuang Beiwang was in seclusion and lamented that no one had alerted him before the treasured item was redeemed.

Jiang Yang exchanged his battlefield merits for the ancient spirit treasure called the God-Forming Prosperity Cloud, after visiting Tai Fuwei and entrusting him with three golden osmanthus moon Pills for Tai Pei'er. He returned to his lodgings with the treasure and considered its unusual powers.

• Jiang Yang left the Dingyuan General's Residence as cultivators admired him and discussed his battlefield fame.
• Jiang Yang visited Tai Fuwei, discussed Tai Pei'er's condition, and gave him three golden osmanthus moon Pills in case her life needed sustaining.
• Tai Fuwei thanked Jiang Yang and wished him success in reaching the Purple Mansion realm before seeing him off.
• Jiang Yang exchanged twelve hundred merit points for a Purple Mansion spirit treasure from the general's residence.
• Jiang Yang opened the case and recognized the ancient fortune treasure as the God-Forming Prosperity Cloud, learning that it could awaken spirits, invest gods, and avert calamities.

After returning from the expedition, Jiang Yang avoided Lian Fei’s attempts to get close to him and reflected on how his growing reputation was changing his relationships. He reached Rain Xiang Mountain and went to pay his respects to Xuan Guang, who greeted him as Sword Immortal Autumn's Arrival.

• Jiang Yang spent several quiet days studying the immortal scripture and considering his cultivation before Lian Fei told him the sect would depart the next day.
• Lian Fei asked Jiang Yang for Sword Dao guidance and offered to perform a sword dance, but he sent her away and shut the door on her.
• On the journey home, Jiang Yang noticed that Jiang Junrui, Qingyan, Zhao Evening Glow, and Senior Brother Zhou treated him with more distant respect, while Zhang Yunbai remained unchanged.
• The Spirit Boat reached Rain Xiang Mountain, where Lin Xi Yu and Lin Xiuyi ordered the peaks to report those who had fallen or died and dismissed the returning disciples.
• Jiang Yang returned to Fushu Peak and climbed to meet his master, Xuan Guang, who greeted him as Sword Immortal Autumn's Arrival.

Jiang Yang returned to Rain Xiang Mountain and told Xuan Guang about his experience in the grotto-heaven and his decision to break through to Purple Mansion. Xuan Guang arranged resources for him and, because Chu Qingjian was already in seclusion, Jiang Yang chose Zhouhui Valley as his own retreat.

• Xuan Guang praised Jiang Yang’s swordsmanship and advised him to refine his sword intent without doubting himself.
• Jiang Yang told Xuan Guang that entering the grotto-heaven had shown him the limits of his strength against Purple Mansion cultivators.
• Xuan Guang recognized that Jiang Yang had spent vitality using a secret art and recommended a breakthrough to increase his lifespan.
• Jiang Yang said he had reached the limit of his cultivation and intended to enter seclusion to break through to Purple Mansion.
• Xuan Guang offered Jiang Yang a Weakwood spirit treasure and a Grand Pill, while warning that he and Chu Qingjian could not enter seclusion on the same peak.
• Jiang Yang agreed to move his retreat and chose Zhouhui Valley.

Jiang Yang chose secluded Zhouhui Valley as his new residence, then returned to his courtyard and received an anxious letter from Shang Qingzheng. At Dawn Rain Peak, Lin Xi Yu discussed a possible True Disciple with Qing Si and revealed she had a lucrative opportunity for her friend.

• Jiang Yang insisted on settling in Zhouhui Valley, and Xuan Guang agreed to send Fireworker Disciples to build him a residence.
• Jiang Yang returned to his courtyard and considered moving the moon-white spirit-clear elm with help from a Wood Virtue cultivator.
• Jiang Yang received a letter from Shang Qingzheng and noticed signs that she had worried while writing it.
• Li Zhouying reported that the Meng clan sought a True Disciple's place for a talented child, and Lin Xi Yu agreed to meet the child privately.
• Qing Si arrived at Dawn Rain Peak, and Lin Xi Yu invited her to join a profitable venture.