Chapter Summaries

Dongfang Minghui was abducted by Wood after Xian used death aura and a piercing call to control him, while Qian Wanyu and Lü Xing were gravely injured trying to protect her. As Qian Wanyu’s group searched the Purple Wolf Empire for a lead, Dongfang Minghui recovered in Wood’s care and learned they were in a remote town, where she began trying to discover his destination.

• Wood attacked Qian Wanyu, and Xian tried to capture Dongfang Minghui, who escaped into a grove with Lü Xing as death aura withered the plants.
• Qian Wanyu fought Xian and Wood; Dongfang Minghui took a claw strike meant for Lü Xing, and Lü Xing later took another blow meant for Qian Wanyu.
• Wood fled with Xian and the unconscious Dongfang Minghui, then abandoned Xian and carried Dongfang Minghui to a house, where she recovered.
• Qian Wanyu’s group treated their injuries, purged the living dead from Return Town, and learned that Wood had taken Dongfang Minghui away.
• Lü Xing mapped the routes he had traveled with Wood, and Qian Wanyu led the group into the Purple Wolf Empire to search for Dongfang Minghui.
• Dongfang Minghui healed and followed Wood outside to learn their location, discovering they were in a remote town in the Purple Wolf Empire.

Qian Wanyu and her companions reached Dream Capital while searching for Dongfang Minghui, who was being carried around the city by Wood. Wood unexpectedly brought Dongfang Minghui into the Thousand Family’s forbidden back mountain, while Qian Wanyu’s group found the empty house where she had stayed and realized they had once again arrived too late.

• Qian Wanyu’s party rested in a ruined temple, where Qian Zhuoqian’s Thousand Travel House party arrived and Aunt Fang noticed Qian Wanyu resembled the Thousand Family’s fourth miss.
• Dongfang Minghui tried to explore Dream Capital with Wood, disguised his face with makeup, left Thieving Hand marks around the city, and met a young woman who felt familiar with Wood.
• After Dongfang Minghui failed to obtain samples from Wood, he carried her through mountain ranges overnight and entered the Thousand Family’s back mountain, injuring guards who tried to stop him.
• Qian Wanyu and her companions reached Dream Capital and followed Dongfang Minghui’s marks from Li Yunan’s family inn to a secluded house.
• Qian Wanyu found Dongfang Minghui’s symbol on the house door, but the house was empty, with her belongings still scattered inside.

Lü Xing reassured Mu Sheng and Wan Yu that Wood and the others would return soon. The group waited after Lü Xing noticed that some things had been left out.

• Lü Xing smiled and said the others would be back.
• Mu Sheng picked up a box of lubricating oil, opened it, and sniffed it.
• Lü Xing reasoned that Wood had only stepped out because he had left things lying around.
• Lü Xing told Wan Yu not to worry and suggested they wait longer.

Dongfang Minghui and Wood forced their way through the Thousand Family Back Mountain, broke its formation, and were recognized by Qian Zihang as his missing eldest brother. While staying at the Thousand Family residence, Dongfang Minghui slipped out with Qian Zhuoyin and discovered that Seventh Sister and Lü Xing had arrived in Dream Capital.

• Dongfang Minghui and Wood fought their way to the Fourth Peak, where Pig Immortal Grass explained the formation and Wood helped capture its leader, Zi Xiao, breaking the eighty-one-person formation.
• Qian Zihang recognized Wood as his missing eldest brother and brought him and Dongfang Minghui to the Thousand Family residence, while Qian Zhuoqian ordered them watched.
• Dongfang Minghui staged a private conversation with Wood to mislead the watchers, then met Qian Zhuoyin, who had disguised herself as Qian Zhuoqian.
• Dongfang Minghui persuaded Qian Zhuoyin to take them into Dream Capital and used a chance during their outing to leave a mark for Seventh Sister and Lü Xing.
• Dongfang Minghui found Seventh Sister's mark confirming that she and Lü Xing had reached Dream Capital, then pretended to browse a vendor's miniature zithers when Qian Zhuoyin returned.

Dongfang Minghui and Qian Ziyan returned to the Thousand Family with Qian Zhuoqian, while Minghui insisted that Qian Zhuoyin accompany them. Word spread through the Dream Capital that Qian Ziyan, missing for nearly twenty years, had come back.

• Dongfang Minghui complained that the shopkeeper had overcharged her after she bought a zither.
• Qian Zhuoyin found Dongfang Minghui and Qian Ziyan and warned them that Qian Zhuoqian's people had arrived.
• Qian Zhuoqian apologized for her younger sister and asked Qian Ziyan and Dongfang Minghui to return with her.
• Dongfang Minghui praised Qian Zhuoyin and asked Qian Zhuoqian to let her accompany them.
• Bystanders recognized Qian Ziyan, and news of his return spread through the Dream Capital to the other three great Lineages.

Dongfang Minghui and Qian Wanyu reunited at the Thousand residence, where the old madam learned that Wood was her son Qian Ziyan and recognized Qian Wanyu as her granddaughter. Qian Wanyu declared she would reclaim Qian Yiling’s place in the family and demanded a chance to compete for the heirs’ trial in three months.

• Li Yunan told Qian Wanyu and the others that he suspected Wood was Qian Ziyan, and they planned to visit the Thousand family to find Dongfang Minghui.
• Dongfang Minghui told the old madam that Qian Ziyan had become a Living Dead, and the old madam agreed to protect their secret and leave his care to her.
• Qian Wanyu entered the Thousand residence disguised as Li Yunan’s guard and reunited with Dongfang Minghui, but the old madam struck her before recognizing her as Qian Yiling’s daughter.
• Dongfang Minghui examined Qian Wanyu’s injuries while the old madam allowed her to stay and recover at the residence.
• Qian Wanyu told the old madam she had returned to reclaim her mother’s place and demanded to compete for entry into the Thousand family’s trial peaks in three months.

Qian Wanyu showed the old madam that she had awakened spiritual power in three elements and was a tri-element Spirit Master. She also recalled Qing Mo’s claim that she possessed a rare five-element spirit body.

• The old madam examined Qian Wanyu and identified her as a tri-element Spirit Master, like her mother.
• Qian Wanyu displayed her earthen, violet, and wind-element spiritual power.
• Qian Wanyu recalled Qing Mo saying that she had a true five-element spirit body, a rarity seen once in a hundred years.

Qian Wanyu and her friends settled into the Thousand Family’s Small Courtyard to prepare for the Nine Peaks qualification assessment, while Dongfang Minghui sought ways to free Wood from the living dead poison and sound-wave control. Qian Zhuoqian learned that Qian Wanyu might be Qian Yiling’s daughter and vowed to oppose her before the Three-Month Trial.

• Qian Wanyu rejected the old madam’s offer to house her friends separately and invited them to train with her for the Thousand Family Back Mountain assessment.
• Situ Hao tested Wood with the Light Element Eye, but Wood kicked him across the courtyard, and Dongfang Minghui explained that Xian could no longer control Wood for now.
• Dongfang Minghui asked Lü Xing to collect a piece of Wood’s flesh, and he cut a sample that Wood allowed him to take; the sample later rotted and released black sap that she collected in potion bottles.
• Dongfang Minghui learned that the Mo Family might possess the prescription that could counter sound-wave control, while Qian Wanyu promised to search for it through Rose Tower’s network.
• Dongfang Minghui exposed Qian Zhuoqian’s disguise as Qian Zhuoyin, then Qian Zhuoqian learned that Qian Wanyu might be Qian Yiling’s daughter and resolved to stop her from succeeding in the trial.

Dongfang Minghui learned from the Dream Seer how she might resolve the conflict with the Mo family and obtain the prescription, then set out for the Blood Baleful Alliance with five guards. After she and her party fell into a trap in Heartless Valley, Qian Wanyu’s suppressed dark-type spiritual power ran wild, and Mu Sheng went to seek the Old Madam’s help but was intercepted by Aunt Fang.

• Dongfang Minghui learned that Mo Lu’s anger stemmed partly from having no heir and that finding the woman who had secretly borne his child could ease the conflict with the Thousand Family.
• Dongfang Minghui told the Old Madam she had a lead on the prescription and requested five people to protect her while she searched for the assassin who had found Mo Lu’s child.
• Qian Wanyu gave Dongfang Minghui the Rose Tower summons token and an Elf Clan favor token before seeing her depart for Heartless Valley with Cai Qing and five guards.
• Dongfang Minghui collected venomous creatures in the dark forest, then triggered a concealed trap that dropped her, Cai Qing, and the others underground.
• Qian Wanyu’s dark-type spiritual power surged out of control, and her attempt to suppress it with the Essence of Thunder ruptured her meridians and left her bleeding from all seven orifices.
• Mu Sheng hurried to find the Old Madam for help, but Aunt Fang stopped him and offered to guide him to the Old Madam’s courtyard.

Qian Wanyu survived her advancement, discovered that her elemental powers could blend together, and left Qian Zhuoqian trapped in a deadly formation. Meanwhile, Dongfang Minghui and her companions explored the Ten Thousand Poison Grotto, where they found a strange plant with deep roots.

• Qian Wanyu lured Aunt Fang into the woods, killed her with death aura, and absorbed her wind-element spiritual power before hiding in a cave to advance.
• Qian Zhuoqian led Thousand Family guards into Qing Mo's formation, where she attacked a guard while the others turned on one another; Qian Wanyu later broke through to Level One Spirit Master and noticed her spiritual powers had blended.
• Qian Wanyu gave an advancement elixir to the Bear Beast, then left the woods as the beast's cultivation surged and it roared behind her.
• Dongfang Minghui and Cai Qing's group fell into the Ten Thousand Poison Grotto, collected its maggots, and used venom-coated Teething Sticks to incapacitate giant rats.
• Dongfang Minghui found a green plant growing among the corpses, began digging up its extensive roots, and asked Little Lecher what it was.

Cai Qing and the others were caught by man-eating grass as living threads wrapped around them. The group was left bound like giant rice dumplings.

• Cai Qing and the others warned that the grass was man-eating.
• Living threads wound around their hands and feet.
• The threads swiftly wrapped each of them into a giant rice dumpling.

Dongfang Minghui and Cai Qing’s group escaped a man-eating grass in a pit and reached the Blood Baleful Alliance, where Dongfang Minghui asked Wei Junlan to help find Mo Lu’s son through the imprisoned assassin White-Clad Guest. Their plan to draw out the adopted child exposed an unknown attacker, and Dongfang Minghui was wounded while preventing him from taking White-Clad Guest.

• Little Lecher devoured the man-eating grass’s threads, freed Cai Qing and the others, and led them out of the cave onto a peak overlooking the Blood Baleful Alliance headquarters.
• Dongfang Minghui met Wei Junlan and asked him to help locate He Lu’s son, who might have been among the orphans supported by White-Clad Guest.
• Wei Junlan learned that White-Clad Guest had been imprisoned five years earlier for leaking an assignment, and he and Dongfang Minghui planned to lure the assassin’s adopted child by staging White-Clad Guest’s execution.
• Dongfang Minghui and Wei Junlan waited in prison, where an unknown swordsman attacked White-Clad Guest and died by poison after Wei Junlan subdued him.
• Dongfang Minghui realized the dead attacker had been a Death Warrior, then confronted another swordsman trying to take White-Clad Guest and suffered a wound to her arm.
• Wei Junlan left the Council Hall after learning Dongfang Minghui had been injured and hurried to her.

Dongfang Minghui exposed Bai Xuan as the assassin who had attacked her and schemed against Wei Junlan, then left the Blood Baleful Alliance with Wei Junlan. On the way back, she saved Cass and his Beastfolk companions from masked attackers, and she returned to the Small Courtyard just as Qian Wanyu appeared.

• Dongfang Minghui persuaded Wei Junlan to issue a Red Mist kill order, selected more than a hundred assassins, and identified Bai Xuan as the attacker by the scent of her sedative.
• Bai Xuan attacked Dongfang Minghui, but she stopped him by claiming to know his background, and the Grand Elder had him captured.
• Dongfang Minghui left the Blood Baleful Alliance for the Thousand Family, bringing Wei Junlan along despite regretting his matchmaking schemes.
• Dongfang Minghui and her companions joined Wei Junlan to investigate a battle and helped defeat masked attackers who had surrounded Cass and five other Beastfolk.
• Cass thanked Dongfang Minghui, offered himself in marriage, and gave her a tooth necklace before leaving with his companions.
• Dongfang Minghui returned to the Small Courtyard with Wei Junlan, where Qian Wanyu appeared and asked who had offered themselves in marriage.

Dongfang Minghui returned to the Thousand Family with Bai Xuan, whose birth father was Mo Lu, and Qian Wanyu agreed to negotiate with the Mo Family for the prescription. At the Mo Family residence, Qian Wanyu provoked Mo Lu with evidence about the person who had caused Mo Chen’s death, and the confrontation turned violent.

• Dongfang Minghui told the Small Courtyard that Bai Xuan was Mo Lu’s son, while Qian Wanyu comforted her and they discussed her Man-Eating Grass and its white spider silk.
• Dongfang Minghui secured the Old Madam’s approval for Qian Wanyu to negotiate with the Mo Family, then encountered Qian Zhuoqian and learned that Qian Zhuoyin had been released from confinement.
• Qian Wanyu told Bai Xuan she knew his origins and offered to reveal them if he cooperated; she then brought him, Dongfang Minghui, and Cai Qing to the Mo Family residence.
• The group witnessed signs of Mo Lu’s cruelty, including a bloodied victim and grisly pastries, before Mo Lu arrived and Qian Wanyu asked him for a medicinal formula.
• Qian Wanyu told Mo Lu that another person had been responsible for Mo Chen’s death and offered an envelope identifying the culprit; Mo Lu attacked, and Cai Qing and Bai Xuan shielded her.

Qian Wanyu negotiated with Mo Lu to uncover the truth behind Mo Chen’s death, secure the medicine formula, and enlist Mo Lu’s help in rescuing Bai Xuan’s adoptive father. After the Mo Family publicly delivered gifts to the Thousand Family, Qian Wanyu’s group left for training while Qian Zhuoqian arranged for Qin Mu to follow them.

• Dongfang Minghui’s Man-Eating Grass swallowed the dead hands in Mo Lu’s hall, and Qian Wanyu forced Mo Lu to accept her terms by threatening to destroy her first letter.
• Qian Wanyu gave Mo Lu clues identifying the cousin who had plotted Mo Chen’s death, then revealed that Bai Xuan was his living son and tied learning Bai Xuan’s whereabouts to rescuing the White-Clad Guest from the Blood Baleful Alliance Forbidden Grounds.
• Qian Wanyu persuaded Mo Lu to send the medicine formula to the Thousand Family publicly, and the next morning the Mo Family delivered the formula and many gifts before Dream Capital’s watching crowds.
• Dongfang Minghui visited Qian Zhuoyin before leaving, gave her potions, and warned her to avoid being alone with Lu Peng, whom Qian Zhuoyin said Qian Zhuoqian wanted her to marry in her place.
• Qian Wanyu’s group departed the Thousand Family that night to train, and Qian Zhuoqian arranged for Qin Mu and two of her people to follow them.

Key events

• The chapter opens by noting that Qian Zhuoqian’s intentions are unclear.
• It then states that her aim is to strike Qian Wanyu a devastating blow.

Characters and interactions

• Qian Zhuoqian is portrayed as hostile toward Qian Wanyu and intent on harming her.
• Qian Wanyu is identified as the target, but does not appear or respond in this excerpt.

Themes

• Intrigue and concealed motives: Zhuoqian’s plan is mentioned, but its details remain unknown.
• Family rivalry: The conflict is framed as one between members of the Qian family.

Qian Wanyu’s group entered Sharp Blade Mountain, where a cursed treasure chamber separated them into strange trials. Dongfang Minghui and Qian Wanyu reunited with Lü Xing and Wood on the second level after awakening new powers and enduring what felt like months apart.

• Li Yunan led Qian Wanyu’s group to Sharp Blade Mountain, where Wei Junlan and his Blood Baleful Alliance companions joined them, followed by Qin Mu’s party.
• In the mountain’s treasure chamber, moths attacked those who touched the chests, and Bai Xuan fought them until Dongfang Minghui persuaded him to abandon his blood-scented sword.
• As the group climbed through thickening mist, everyone was separated into individual trials; Dongfang Minghui was overwhelmed by spiritual energy, while Qian Wanyu awakened her metal attribute.
• Dongfang Minghui practiced Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers to control her surging spiritual power, advanced to Level One Spirit Warrior, and reunited with Qian Wanyu.
• Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui appeared beside Lü Xing and Wood, who said they had waited five or six days for them.

Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui were separated by the strange mountain’s trials, each facing dangers and discovering new abilities. As they searched for a way through, Toothless found the Dark-Type Beast Tiger’s den and befriended an ostracized White Tiger cub.

• Qian Wanyu and Lü Xing compared what they had experienced, then found Qin Mu’s dead companions before continuing up the steps with Dongfang Minghui.
• Dongfang Minghui fell into a chamber of bronze soldiers and, after three days, learned to immobilize them with Flying Needles before passing through a stone door into a bone-filled room.
• Qing Mo identified the mountain as possibly being True-False Mountain, and Qian Wanyu fell into a prison chamber where she found a corpse resembling Dongfang Minghui in a Cold Jade Coffin.
• Qian Wanyu escaped the prison, rescued Situ Hao from a Dark-Type Beast Tiger, and followed the beast to a valley where she fought off its monkey-like companion.
• Dongfang Minghui met Li Yunan and Mu Sheng while searching for Toothless, and agreed to wait for Mu Sheng to finish cultivating before they looked together.
• Toothless tracked Qian Wanyu’s scent to the Dark-Type Beast Tiger’s cave, found three cubs, and shared its Teething Stick with the bullied White Tiger.

Toothless awakened its fire element while protecting Wei Junlan from two Thousand Family servants who tried to seize it and a white tiger cub. After Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui rescued them, Qian Wanyu led Ninth Sister to uncover the treasure Toothless had buried.

• Toothless returned with a tiny white tiger cub, buried a treasure near Qing Mo's Barrier, and waited with the cub on the first level of Sharp Blade Mountain.
• Bai Rou fought Qin Mu, and Wei Junlan reached the first level after advancing to a third-level Spirit Warrior and escaping a wind-element magic beast.
• Aunt Qin and Aunt Fang tried to take Toothless and the white cub, then attacked Wei Junlan when he recognized them as Thousand Family servants.
• Toothless was knocked into a pillar, awakened its fire element, and burned the moths surrounding it as Qian Wanyu arrived and helped rescue Wei Junlan.
• Dongfang Minghui treated Wei Junlan and Toothless, then followed Qian Wanyu to the spot where Toothless had buried something and began digging.

Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui stayed behind in Sharp Blade Mountain to hold off a swarm of magic beasts while the others escaped, then fought a powerful earth-element beast as Qian Wanyu prepared to break through. Their companions returned to the Thousand Family and asked the Old Madam to rescue them, and she sent Cai Qing to lead a larger group back to the mountain.

• Dongfang Minghui was burned by a black bead Toothless had uncovered, and Qing Mo identified it as a Dark-Type Soul Pearl before Qin Mu collapsed nearby; Qian Wanyu let Minghui treat him once, and they left him a potion.
• The group found that Situ Hao, the Grand Elder, and Bai Xuan were still missing, but Bai Xuan and the Grand Elder soon emerged with an unconscious Situ Hao and warned everyone to flee from the approaching magic beasts.
• Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui stayed behind to buy time while Li Yunan sent the others out; a swarm of moths poured into the passage, and the fleeing group escaped just before the entrance collapsed.
• The others waited outside overnight, then returned to the Thousand Family when Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui failed to emerge; Wei Junlan gave Bai Xuan his adoptive father's sword, and Bai Xuan explained that a level-nine beast had injured the Grand Elder.
• Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui fought through the magic beasts until a level-eight earth-element beast emerged; Little Lecher restrained it, and Qian Wanyu devoured its energy core and prepared to break through.
• Bai Rou and the others told the Old Madam that Qian Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui were trapped inside Sharp Blade Mountain, and the Old Madam ordered Cai Qing to take more people and bring them back.