Chapter Summaries

Stoneborn and Du Xiaolin explored the Demon-Subduing Palace while Yi Shuyuan and the Manifest Holiness True Lord attended a meeting about the approaching Starwoven Dharma Assembly. After the True Lord left, Yi Shuyuan discussed the gathering’s invited guests with White Robe and looked forward to its scale.

• Stoneborn and Du Xiaolin ran through the Demon-Subduing Palace, while the hundred ghosts explored its halls.
• White Robe arrived with ceremonial officials and asked the Manifest Holiness True Lord to approve the Heavenly Emperor’s plans for the Starwoven Dharma Assembly.
• The Manifest Holiness True Lord agreed to follow the Heavenly Emperor’s arrangements and left the ceremonial details to Yunlai and Lu Xin.
• Yi Shuyuan left the Demon-Subduing Hall with Zhuo Qing after teasing White Robe and avoiding the assembly’s organizational matters.
• White Robe told Yi Shuyuan that the assembly would invite gods, immortal sects, Buddhas, dragons, demons, and other accomplished practitioners from across the Celestial Court’s domain.

Yi Shuyuan gave White Robe three Vital Essence Pills, which White Robe brought to the Heavenly Emperor for examination. The Divine Medicine Palace confirmed that one was an upper-grade Immortal Elixir, a Dao Pill also known as a Heaven-Stealing Pill.

• White Robe asked Yi Shuyuan about the pill he had used to help plague victims in Zhao Province, and Yi Shuyuan said it was a Vital Essence Pill he had refined himself.
• Yi Shuyuan offered White Robe three Vital Essence Pills, and White Robe hurried to report the gift to the Heavenly Emperor.
• The Heavenly Emperor opened one of the jade boxes and summoned the Medicine Master Star Lord to identify the pill.
• The Medicine Master Star Lord released the pill’s fragrance, causing it to glow and dart around the Divine Firmament Treasure Hall before he caught it in its jade box.
• The Medicine Master Star Lord resealed the pill and declared it an upper-grade Immortal Elixir, also called a Dao Pill or Heaven-Stealing Pill.

Yi Shuyuan visited the Divine Medicine Palace after the Heavenly Emperor revealed that he had refined the Vital Essence Pills. As he examined the Palace’s damaged alchemy furnaces, one showed him a vision of its destruction and left a scorched wound on his palm.

• The Heavenly Emperor told the Divine Medicine Palace that Yi Daozi had refined the Vital Essence Pills, and the Medicine Master Star Lord asked permission to seek his instruction.
• White Robe brought Yi Shuyuan an invitation to visit the Divine Medicine Palace, and Yi Shuyuan accepted and traveled there with him.
• The Medicine Master Star Lord and more than a hundred divine beings welcomed Yi Shuyuan eagerly, crowding around him as they escorted him inside.
• The Divine Medicine Palace attendants showed Yi Shuyuan several treasured alchemy furnaces, most of them damaged relics of the Immortal Dao’s Alchemy Cauldron Lineage.
• Yi Shuyuan touched a damaged furnace and saw a vision of it enduring a catastrophic lightning strike; the furnace shuddered, its cracks widened, and a scorched wound appeared on his palm.

Yi Shuyuan showed the Divine Medicine Palace the Heaven-Turning Furnace, whose power stirred furnaces throughout the palace before he put it away. He then visited the Pill Scripture Pavilion and became so absorbed in its alchemy texts that visitors waited for days.

• Yi Shuyuan warned the Divine Medicine Palace that its damaged immortal furnaces had gone cold and could not be restored.
• At the divine beings’ request, Yi Shuyuan summoned the Heaven-Turning Furnace and demonstrated its gathering of starlight and turning of yin and yang.
• The Heaven-Turning Furnace stirred more than a thousand furnaces across the Divine Medicine Palace, causing some to crack, topple, and spill their contents, so Yi Shuyuan quickly put it away.
• The Medicine Master Star Lord invited Yi Shuyuan to the Pill Scripture Pavilion, where he began studying its alchemy texts.
• The Medicine Master Star Lord, other divine officials, White Robe, Stoneborn, and Du Xiaolin waited or visited while Yi Shuyuan remained engrossed in the scriptures for several days.

After studying the Divine Medicine Palace’s alchemy scriptures for half a year, Yi Shuyuan agreed to lead its attendants in refining a furnace of Dao pills for the approaching Starwoven Gathering. His plan revealed that the long-awaited opportunity for the Starwoven Dharma Assembly had arrived, and the Heavenly Emperor mobilized the gods to help.

• Hui Mian sent Stoneborn to West River Village to tell Yi Baokang and the others that Yi Shuyuan would stay longer, while Du Xiaolin went to the Celestial Weaving Palace.
• After half a year of studying alchemy texts, Yi Shuyuan offered to guide the Divine Medicine Palace attendants in refining pills together and asked the Medicine Master Star Lord to find gods skilled in water and fire.
• The Medicine Master Star Lord rushed to the Divine Firmament Treasure Hall and reported Yi Shuyuan’s plan, explaining that the Divine Medicine Palace had only forty-two suitable participants.
• The Heavenly Mystery Instrument activated, and the Heavenly Emperor realized that the true opening for the Starwoven Dharma Assembly and its Dao Artifact opportunity had arrived.
• The Heavenly Emperor ordered the Heaven-Shaking Drum beaten and the Heaven-Returning Bell rung to summon the gods back to their posts.

The Heavenly Emperor sounded the Heaven-Shaking Drum and Heaven-Returning Bell to summon the gods after Yi Daozi prepared the Earth Scroll Book for the Starwoven Dharma Assembly. The scrolls selected sixty-six Divine Beings, who followed Medicine Master Star Lord to the Divine Medicine Palace while the remaining gods stayed to learn what would happen next.

• The Heavenly Emperor ordered the Heaven-Shaking Drum and Heaven-Returning Bell sounded, summoning gods from across the realms to the Celestial Court.
• Medicine Master Star Lord told Yi Shuyuan that the Heavenly Emperor had summoned the gods to find sixty-six Divine Beings suited to the Earth Scroll Book.
• The Manifest Holiness True Lord returned to his post and joined the assembled gods at the Divine Firmament Treasure Hall.
• The Heavenly Emperor explained that Yi Daozi's Earth Scroll Book could make the Starwoven Dharma Assembly possible and that sixty-six suitable Divine Beings were needed.
• Medicine Master Star Lord brought out the Earth Scroll Book, and sixty-six volumes and slips chose Divine Beings across the cloud terrace.
• The chosen Divine Beings followed Medicine Master Star Lord to the Divine Medicine Palace, while Yi Shuyuan returned to the Demon-Subduing Palace and the other gods remained behind.

Yi Shuyuan led 108 divine beings in a ritual to refine a dao furnace within the Celestial River, using the Mountain and River State Map to unite their power and the realm’s destiny. The Heavenly Emperor announced that the Starwoven Dharma Assembly would take place in nine years, when the furnace was expected to yield true immortal elixirs.

• Yi Shuyuan explained how the divine beings would use the Earth Scroll Books to form a heaven-and-earth furnace and refine immortal elixirs together.
• Yi Shuyuan led the 108 divine beings, alchemy furnaces, and elixir ingredients from the Divine Medicine Palace to the Celestial River.
• Yi Shuyuan cast the Mountain and River State Map into the river and began the refinement with the Heaven-Turning Furnace.
• The divine beings took their positions across the map and redirected a vast torrent of destiny and star power toward the furnace.
• The Heavenly Emperor sensed the changes around the Heavenly Mystery Instrument and declared the Starwoven Dharma Assembly would convene in nine years.

Yi Shuyuan began refining a Dao artifact with 108 divine beings, a task expected to take nine years, while Stoneborn and Du Xiaolin left the Heavenly Realm. Stoneborn delivered Yi Shuyuan’s message to his family and then parted from Du Xiaolin at the E River.

• Yi Shuyuan used the Mountain and River State Map, the Celestial River, and the Heaven-Turning Furnace to begin refining a Dao artifact, sensing that the outcome would be decided in nine years.
• Hui Mian told Stoneborn and Du Xiaolin that Yi Shuyuan would be occupied for nine years and sent Stoneborn to deliver a message to Yuanjiang County.
• Stoneborn sent the Yi family a letter explaining that Yi Shuyuan had left on important affairs, and Yi Baokang took Yi A Bao to work in the fields.
• At the E River, Du Xiaolin told Yan Bo that the Water Goddess had let her keep the two lotus flowers, and Yan Bo departed into the water.
• Du Xiaolin gave Stoneborn one of the purple lotus buds and flew toward Taiyin Palace, while Stoneborn watched her leave.

Lady Shuntian obtained medicine for Granny Yu, whose health had briefly improved, while Qi Zhongbin returned to Tea Province and received an invitation to the Starwoven Gathering. The chapter ended with Qi Zhongbin wondering whether his master, Yi Shuyuan, would attend.

• Lady Shuntian collected Fetus-Calming Medicine and insisted on obtaining Yang-Extending Powder for her temple keeper, Yu Fuying.
• Yu Fuying visited the bustling Shuntian Lady Temple during its repairs and reflected on her approaching death and Qi Zhongbin's long absence.
• Qi Zhongbin returned to his old fortune-telling spot beneath the temple's great tree, and Yu Fuying recognized him before turning away in irritation.
• You Qingzhong appeared before Qi Zhongbin, introduced himself as the Starwoven Ceremonial Officer, and gave him a Heavenly Immortal Edict and an invitation to the Starwoven Gathering.
• After You Qingzhong departed, Qi Zhongbin studied the Starwoven Decree and realized he had forgotten to ask whether Yi Shuyuan would attend.

Qi Zhongbin reconciled with Granny Yu and received a message from Stoneborn offering help with a Vital Essence Pill. He sent Mo Xiaorong back to tell Stoneborn that he would remember his words and not to worry.

• Granny Yu returned to Qi Zhongbin and asked whether he had seen the light; Qi Zhongbin apologized for the wrongs he had done her.
• Qi Zhongbin felt relieved after Granny Yu hurried away, then spoke with the new Temple Keeper about how long he had known Granny Yu.
• Stoneborn, now grown, spoke with his ten-year-old sister Mo Xiaorong and promised to take her somewhere far away in three years.
• Stoneborn asked Mo Xiaorong to tell Qi Zhongbin that he could help him obtain a Vital Essence Pill and that Qi Zhongbin should come to him without embarrassment.
• Mo Xiaorong delivered Stoneborn's message, and Qi Zhongbin told her to assure her Elder Brother that he would remember his words and need not worry.

Stoneborn overcame his doubts about understanding the Dao by experiencing life as a fish in a dream, while Granny Yu drew an auspicious fortune and went with Qi Zhongbin for a stroll. The woman later found Granny Yu lying peacefully in bed.

• Mo Xiaorong splashed water on Stoneborn, whose dream transformed him into a fish and helped him understand the fish's perspective.
• Stoneborn awoke, reassured Mo Xiaorong, and carried her off to play.
• Granny Yu asked Lady Shuntian for a fortune, and a bamboo stick fell at her feet bearing an auspicious verse about meeting a white-haired benefactor.
• Qi Zhongbin interpreted the fortune as a sign that he and Granny Yu were bound by fate, then helped her leave the temple for a stroll through Mingzhou City.
• The woman returned to Granny Yu's room and found her lying peacefully beneath her quilt.

Qi Zhongbin and Yu Fuying shared a final day exploring Mingzhou’s wonders before Lady Shuntian welcomed Yu Fuying into her temple, leaving Qi Zhongbin to depart alone. In the Heavenly Realm, Yi Shuyuan’s six-year work reached its decisive moment as Cold Dew stirred the furnaces and Geng Metal’s murderous intent surged through the Celestial River.

• Qi Zhongbin and Yu Fuying reminisced at Lotus Wind Bridge while Mo Xiaorong and Stoneborn watched from a nearby restaurant.
• Qi Zhongbin and Yu Fuying spent the day visiting Mingzhou’s wonders, and Yu Fuying’s long-held resentment toward him faded.
• Lady Shuntian appeared at Shuntian Lady Temple, restored Yu Fuying’s strength, and led her into the main hall while Qi Zhongbin watched from outside.
• Qi Zhongbin collected his belongings and left the temple, while Li Suping stayed to care for it after Yu Fuying’s passing.
• Yi Shuyuan sensed his disciples’ circumstances but focused on forging the Heaven-Turning Furnace as Cold Dew arrived and the Immortal Dao Ruins Furnaces began to break apart.
• Geng Metal’s murderous intent surged through the Celestial River, and Yi Shuyuan called on the 108 Divine Beings as a ringing metal tremor spread across the Mountain and River State Map.

Yi Shuyuan endured the Geng Metal tribulation by using a pipa’s music to redirect the metal energy and forge a furnace within the Heaven-Turning Furnace. Seven days after Cold Dew, the tribulation subsided, and he began refining the treasured pill ingredients gathered from across the Mountain and River State Map.

• The Geng Metal energy shook the Mountain and River State Map, and Yi Shuyuan and the one hundred and eight divine beings struggled to withstand its force.
• Yi Shuyuan realized he could not face the metal energy head-on, transformed his Folding Fan into a pipa, and used its strings to redirect the energy through the map.
• Yi Shuyuan’s music gradually brought the metal energy under his command, forging the phantom shape of a furnace as the divine beings sustained the formation.
• Seven days after Cold Dew, the Geng Metal force weakened, leaving the mountain damaged and Yi Shuyuan’s fingertips bloodied and primordial essence depleted.
• Yi Shuyuan took a Vital Essence Pill, gathered the pill ingredients arriving from across the map, and kindled flames in both the Heaven-Turning Furnace and its inner furnace.

Yi Shuyuan survived the unprecedented furnace-within-a-furnace pill refinement, then slept as the Mountain and River State Map changed and snow fell across it. Meanwhile, the Celestial Court invited powers from across the world to the coming Starwoven Dharma Assembly, where Yi Shuyuan’s pill-refining feat became a central attraction.

• Yi Shuyuan recovered with a Vital Essence Pill and fell asleep beside the Alchemy Furnace on the mountaintop.
• Huan Yulang and the other deities saw snow sweep across the Mountain and River State Map for the first time in six years.
• The Lord of Martial Virtue invited the Dragon Lord to the Starwoven Dharma Assembly, while Jiang Lang and Taiyin Palace also received invitations and discussed who would attend.
• Zheng Ying accepted a Starwoven Decree for the absent Cloud Emerald Lineage as invitations reached accomplished practitioners and other Celestial Courts throughout the world.
• Preparations filled the banks of the Celestial River, and a Divine Artificer told visiting Immortal Cultivators that Yi Daozi was refining pills at the gathering’s greatest mystery.
• Yi Shuyuan continued sleeping beside the furnace as the formerly bare mountaintop grew lush and flowers bloomed around him.

As Yi Shuyuan’s elixir refinement neared completion, the Great Yong Emperor held an autumn hunt and discussed the succession with his ministers. Meanwhile, several outsiders who sought a Starwoven Decree decided to approach the emperor for an Imperial Edict that could help them reach the Heavenly Realm.

• Yi Shuyuan turned the ingredients in the Heaven-Turning Furnace and Furnace Within the Furnace into streams of qi, then fed in the remaining ingredients as the divine beings sensed the refinement was nearly finished.
• The Great Yong Emperor summoned Chu Hang, Lin Xiu, Li Qian, Zou Jie, and She Wuxuan to his camp during the autumn hunt and spoke of his sons and his hesitation to appoint a crown prince.
• She Wuxuan declined to identify which prince answered to the stars, and the emperor ended the discussion by inviting his ministers to dine with him.
• Several outsiders sensed the Great Yong Emperor’s powerful Purple Star Emperor Qi and decided to seek an Imperial Edict so they could travel to the Heavenly Realm and attend the Starwoven Dharma Assembly.
• The outsiders swept toward Yan Mountain to approach the emperor.

During the imperial hunt on Yan Mountain, the Great Yong Emperor dreamed that a demonic tiger trapped his party and forced him to draw his sword. The dream’s sword strike killed the tiger-spirit behind Spirit Wind, and the other demons fled.

• At a feast before the hunt, the Great Yong Emperor asked Chu Hang about the missing Yi Shuyuan and drank himself into a stupor.
• Four strange figures gathered on Yan Mountain, and one of them roared like a tiger toward the Imperial Guards' camp.
• Spirit Wind asked to meet the Great Yong Emperor and warned him to call for help if danger arose, but the emperor distrusted him and led the hunt into the mountains.
• A storm trapped the emperor’s party, and a demonic tiger attacked the soldiers as Zou Jie and Zhang Liangxi went out to face it.
• The emperor seized a guard’s sword, drew it against the tiger in his dream, and the sword’s radiant strike killed Spirit Wind, whose body became a black spirit cat.
• The remaining figures saw Spirit Wind’s corpse and fled Yan Mountain.

During the royal autumn hunt, the emperor’s party encountered a mysterious being that left a dead beast outside an apparently empty house, which the emperor called the Mountain God’s dwelling. The chapter then shifted to Mo Xiaorong following Stoneborn, who promised to take her out on the winter solstice and asked her to count streaks of light in the sky.

• The emperor’s hunting party found a strange house beneath a cliff, where She Wuxuan sensed someone hiding inside.
• A shadowy, inhuman figure emerged, set down a dead black-furred beast, and disappeared into the empty house.
• The emperor ordered the house left standing and took the beast as his prey before continuing the hunt.
• On the day the Heavenly Realm opened for the Starwoven Dharma Assembly, Mo Xiaorong followed Stoneborn out of the Dining Hall.
• Stoneborn promised to take Mo Xiaorong out on the winter solstice and told her to count any streaks of light she sensed in the sky.

Stoneborn visited Qi Zhongbin to obtain talismans that would let Mo Xiaorong travel safely in a manifested body, then took her to the Heavenly Realm for the Starwoven Dharma Assembly. They reached Du Xiaolin and the Taiyin Palace cultivators aboard a treasure ship, where Mo Xiaorong boldly jumped onto the deck and landed unharmed.

• Stoneborn met Qi Zhongbin on a reef, demonstrated his Earthly Fiend transformation, and watched a host of Flood Dragons fly toward the Heavenly Realm.
• Qi Zhongbin gave Stoneborn two talismans that could send Mo Xiaorong's divine sense into a fragile manifested body for about a day.
• Stoneborn used a talisman to wake Mo Xiaorong and carried her on his Wind-Fire Wheels through the Heavenly Gate and into the Celestial Court.
• Stoneborn found Du Xiaolin and the Taiyin Palace cultivators aboard a treasure ship, and Mo Xiaorong introduced herself as his little sister.
• Mo Xiaorong jumped from Stoneborn's back onto the ship, landed safely with magical assistance, and earned his approving message.

The Purple Mountain Sect learned that Yi Daozi was refining Immortal Elixirs within the Celestial River, while Dragonkind and other guests arrived for the Starwoven Dharma Assembly. The Heavenly Emperor announced that the gathering’s tide would peak at midnight, and the Alchemy Furnace’s ringing began spreading through the Celestial River.

• Cai Yusheng led the Purple Mountain Sect to pay respects to the Heavenly Emperor, then learned from Zhu Xinglian that Yi Daozi had concealed an elixir-refining formation in the Celestial River.
• The Lord of Martial Virtue welcomed the Dragon Lord and Dragonkind at the Heavenly Gate, while Qi Zhongbin watched them arrive.
• The Heavenly Emperor opened the Starwoven Dharma Assembly, declared that its tide would peak at midnight, and warned that tribulations would descend during the gathering.
• The Dragon Lord asked about a metallic ringing from the Celestial River, and the Heavenly Emperor identified it as the Dao sound of the Alchemy Furnace and called the Immortal Elixirs the gathering’s greatest mystery.
• The Alchemy Furnace rang inside the Mountain and River State Map, and its mysterious light spread into the Celestial River, drawing the attention of cultivators throughout the assembly.

As Yi Shuyuan completed his nine-year refinement inside the Mountain and River State Map, the Heavenly Emperor revealed that Immortal Elixirs would emerge at the Starwoven Dharma Assembly. The Pill Tribulation began as Heavenfire meteors struck the Alchemy Furnace, and Yi Shuyuan left the gathered paths to protect it.

• Jiang Lang told the gathered dragons that the visions in the Celestial River came from Yi Daozi's Mountain and River State Map, a Grotto-Heaven world.
• Stoneborn and the Taiyin Palace disciples discussed the coming Immortal Elixirs, while Hui Mian waited at the distant Demon-Subduing Palace.
• Yi Shuyuan awoke from his long sleep, declared the refinement complete, and brought the seven-colored Alchemy Furnace out of the Heaven-Turning Furnace.
• The Mountain and River State Map's scenes converged in the Celestial River as Heavenfire meteors appeared, revealing the furnace's location and signaling the Pill Tribulation.
• Yi Shuyuan sent the Alchemy Furnace out of the map and asked the gathered cultivators to help face the tribulation; a Heavenfire Meteor struck the furnace as some rushed to protect it and others fled.