Chapter Summaries

Eight years after repelling Lu Fubin, Liu Yu completed the second Demon Fire Refining Essence tempering and prepared to return to guard the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden. He traveled with Cao Mengyu and Ding Hui, leaving the city as Cao Mengyu’s recent advance to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage came to light.

• Liu Yu completed his second Demon Fire Refining Essence tempering and reflected on his progress in the Spirit-Concealing Art and Divine Preservation Art.
• Liu Yu gathered his belongings and left his cultivation abode to resume his five-year rotation guarding the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden.
• Liu Yu met Cao Mengyu and Ding Hui outside Moonwatch Immortal Fate City, where he noticed Cao Mengyu had reached the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
• Liu Yu evaded Cao Mengyu’s questions about his keen perception and flew toward the Spirit Herb Garden, with Cao Mengyu and Ding Hui following.

Liu Yu and Cao Mengyu and Ding Hui arrived at the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden, where Yan Hongyu told them about repeated enemy attacks and the garden's worsening danger. While beginning his watch, Liu Yu considered ways to obtain the rare origin-returning flower growing there, including waiting for an enemy assault to create an opportunity.

• Liu Yu and the others presented their credentials to Yan Hongyu and entered the Spirit Herb Garden.
• Yan Hongyu described two enemy attacks, including a recent battle against fifteen cultivators, and Liu Yu said they should not risk making a stand at the garden.
• The three took over the watch from the departing cultivators, and Liu Yu returned to his cave abode to cultivate.
• Liu Yu reviewed his dwindling supply of Essence-Refining Pills and his plans to refine Azure Origin Pills, which required origin-returning flowers.
• Liu Yu considered taking an origin-returning flower during a possible enemy assault but avoided trading with Yan Hongyu or the Many Treasures Pavilion for now.

Liu Yu spent half a year preparing for a possible assault on the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden while its defenses remained undisturbed. The formation then began to tremble, and Yan Hongyu sent word that enemy cultivators were attacking in force.

• Yan Hongyu assigned Liu Yu and Ding Hui to guard the southern side of the formation with their group during its watch rotation.
• Liu Yu studied cultivation methods and secret arts, inspected the formation with Ding Hui, and nurtured his magical artifacts while avoiding lengthy cultivation.
• The Spirit Herb Garden went without an attack for half a year as Liu Yu continued preparing for danger.
• Liu Yu sensed the underground space trembling and received Yan Hongyu's urgent message that enemy cultivators were attacking in force.
• Liu Yu and the disciples were ordered to return to the surface and engage the enemy cultivators.

Liu Yu drove the Spirit Herb Garden’s disciples to the surface, then joined the defenders as enemy cultivators bombarded the Blackwater Extreme Wind Formation. He fought to maintain appearances while secretly weighing the battle, and Cao Mengyu struggled to keep the formation operating.

• Liu Yu ordered the Qi Refining Period disciples to follow the Foundation Establishment cultivators to the surface, threatening to execute anyone who deserted.
• After nearly everyone left, Liu Yu rode toward the surface and used the Divine Preservation Art to survey the formation and battlefield.
• Liu Yu saw eighteen enemy Foundation Establishment cultivators and their disciples attacking the formation while ten defenders, including Yan Hongyu and Li Butong, fought back.
• Li Butong intercepted two powerful enemy spells with an azure whirlwind, and Liu Yu compared his strength with Li Butong’s.
• Liu Yu joined Cao Mengyu and Ding Hui, sending out the Mother-and-Son Soul-Chasing Blades and Sharpgold Sword to intercept two enemy cultivators.
• Cao Mengyu continued directing the Blackwater Extreme Wind Formation as it shuddered under the attack.

The Primordial Yang Sect’s defenders struggled to hold the Blackwater Extreme Wind Formation against a powerful Hehuan Sect assault. Qi Shaoan, one of the Six Sons of Hehuan, released pink mist from a special gourd, and Liu Yu realized the defenders were in grave danger.

• Enemy cultivators battered the formation while Cao Mengyu concentrated on keeping it intact, and Liu Yu held off two Foundation Establishment cultivators without revealing his full strength.
• Qi Shaoan taunted Li Butong, and Ding Hui recognized him as the third-ranked Six Sons of Hehuan, the Pink-Faced Gentleman.
• Qi Shaoan summoned a pink gourd and used hand seals to release mist that drifted toward the formation.
• Liu Yu recognized the threat, restrained his attacks further, and resolved to act if an opportunity arose.
• Li Butong, Yan Hongyu, and the other defenders could not break free from their opponents, while their attacks failed to disperse the replenished, thickening mist.

The Primordial Yang Sect cultivators struggled to hold the Spirit Herb Garden as the pink mist and enemy attacks drained the Blackwater Extreme Wind Formation. Yan Hongyu ordered the disciples to escape when it fell, and the formation began to collapse.

• The pink mist rapidly weakened the Blackwater Extreme Wind Formation, while Liu Yu quietly moved closer to the passage to the Spirit Herb Garden.
• Cao Mengyu failed to reverse the formation's decline as Yan Hongyu, Li Butong, and the other defenders remained occupied by enemy cultivators.
• Yan Hongyu told the disciples to break out once the formation fell and said they would meet again in Moonwatch Immortal Fate City.
• Liu Yu drank Snowflake Brew and absorbed energy from two mid-grade spirit stones while conserving his magical power and fighting defensively.
• After another twenty or thirty breaths of attacks, formation nodes began exploding throughout the Blackwater Extreme Wind Formation.

After the formation collapsed, the Primordial Yang Sect cultivators scattered as the Hehuan Sect pursued them. Liu Yu fled toward the Spirit Herb Garden's entrance with a white-bearded foundation establishment cultivator on his tail, while the sect's disciples suffered heavy casualties.

• The formation broke, and Cao Mengyu suffered a backlash as the Primordial Yang Sect cultivators fled in every direction.
• Qi Shaoan ordered some Hehuan Sect cultivators to guard the Spirit Herb Garden's entrance and led the others in pursuit.
• Liu Yu feigned panic and fled toward the Spirit Herb Garden's entrance, while a greedy white-bearded elder chased him for his two Top-grade Magical Artifacts.
• Hehuan Sect cultivators caught and killed many Primordial Yang Sect qi refining disciples as the pursuit spread across the battlefield.

Liu Yu entered the Spirit Herb Garden, destroyed his residence to erase traces of his aura, and waited for the white-bearded elder. He unleashed his full strength against the elder, and their battle began with neither side gaining the upper hand.

• Liu Yu entered the Spirit Herb Garden while the white-bearded elder hesitated outside, then followed after two Hehuan Sect cultivators arrived to guard the entrance.
• The two Hehuan Sect cultivators stayed behind and planned to demand a share of the spoils from the white-bearded elder.
• Liu Yu destroyed the formation around his residence and burned the building to erase traces that could be used to track him.
• The white-bearded elder found Liu Yu waiting and cautiously questioned him, but Liu Yu attacked without hesitation.
• Liu Yu summoned the Profound Departure Sword, the Gleaming Gold Bow, and other artifacts, forcing the white-bearded elder to defend against a barrage of attacks.
• The white-bearded elder blocked Liu Yu’s first attacks with his artifacts and talismans, and the two sides clashed repeatedly without either gaining the upper hand.

Liu Yu used the Spirit-Shocking Thorn to disrupt the white-bearded elder’s secret art and turn their battle in his favor. He killed the elder, burned the corpse with the Azure Yang Demonic Flame, and collected his possessions.

• The white-bearded elder began gathering spiritual energy to unleash a powerful secret art, so Liu Yu struck him with the Spirit-Shocking Thorn and caused the spell to backfire.
• Liu Yu’s weapons overwhelmed the injured elder’s defenses, while the elder used Spirit Talismans to block the Gleaming Gold Bow’s attacks.
• As the elder brought out a Purple Little Bell Talisman Treasure, Liu Yu hit him with two more Spirit-Shocking Thorns and left him dazed.
• Liu Yu’s Profound Departure Sword cleaved the landscape painting and blasted the elder’s head into a bloody mist.
• Liu Yu burned the elder’s corpse with the Azure Yang Demonic Flame, then collected his magical artifacts, Storage Bag, and Talisman Treasure.

Liu Yu broke into the Spirit Herb Garden and collected rare herbs, including an origin-returning flower and a Primordial Chaos Fruit seedling, before leaving the remaining plants intact to avoid provoking enemy cultivators. Three Spirit Planters asked him to take them along, and Liu Yu questioned their request.

• Liu Yu destroyed the restrictions around the spirit fields with the Profound Departure Sword and rushed inside.
• Liu Yu collected one specimen of each herb he needed, preserving roots so he could grow them in the Immortal Mansion.
• Liu Yu found a Primordial Chaos Fruit seedling and took it, then decided to leave the other spirit herbs undamaged.
• Three Spirit Planters approached Liu Yu and pleaded for him to take them with him.
• Liu Yu asked the Spirit Planters, “Take you with me?”

Liu Yu killed the three Spirit Planters, escaped the Spirit Herb Garden beneath the Black Great Swamp, and avoided pursuit when the Hehuan Sect cultivators concealed the white-bearded old man's death. He emerged a hundred li east of the garden and flew toward Moonwatch City, remaining prepared for an attack.

• Liu Yu burned the three Spirit Planters to ash with his Azure Yang Demonic Flame and took their Storage Bags.
• Liu Yu sensed two Hehuan Sect Foundation Establishment cultivators approaching and used an Earth Escape Talisman to flee underground.
• The two Hehuan Sect cultivators found the ashes, decided to blame the missing herbs on the Primordial Yang Sect cultivator, and chose not to pursue Liu Yu.
• Liu Yu traveled east beneath the Black Great Swamp, keeping his aura concealed and detouring to avoid enemy cultivators.
• Liu Yu emerged a hundred li east of the Spirit Herb Garden and flew toward Moonwatch City on the Wind-Evasion Boat, readying his weapons in case of an attack.

Liu Yu returned to Moonwatch City and reported to the surviving Primordial Yang Sect cultivators after the Spirit Herb Garden fell. As the hours passed without more survivors arriving, Yan Hongyu waited anxiously while Liu Yu concealed his gains and injuries.

• Liu Yu entered Moonwatch City and headed to the City Lord's Mansion to report his return.
• Liu Yu found Yan Hongyu, Li Butong, Cao Mengyu, and two other Foundation Establishment cultivators recovering in the side hall, with only five of the eleven stationed at the Spirit Herb Garden accounted for.
• Yan Hongyu welcomed Liu Yu back and worried that the loss of the garden and its defenders would bring punishment.
• Liu Yu concealed his true condition and reflected that the rare spirit plants he had taken, including a Primordial Chaos Fruit tree, made him one of the incident's greatest beneficiaries.
• After another two hours passed without further survivors arriving, Yan Hongyu repeatedly watched for their return.

Liu Yu and the five other survivors of the attack on the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden were summoned before three Golden Core elders to explain what happened. Yan Hongyu recounted the assault, and Liu Yu began giving his own account while concealing his herb gathering and the details of his escape.

• Only six Foundation Establishment cultivators returned from the Spirit Herb Garden, and Wu Yuhan led them to meet the elders at noon.
• Liu Yu and the other five survivors agreed without speaking to present a united front before the elders.
• Liu Yu sensed the elders before the others and secretly used the Spirit-Concealing Art to mask his unusually rapid cultivation progress.
• Elder Yan ordered Yan Hongyu to explain the attack, and she described the force led by Qi Shaoan and their failed defense of the garden.
• The survivors each gave their accounts, and Liu Yu claimed that a weak pursuer had abandoned the chase after several dozen li.

Liu Yu and the other survivors faced judgment for the fall of the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden. The elders imposed a limited punishment, though Yan Hongyu also received fourteen years of service at the Main Camp on the Frontline Battlefield.

• Liu Yu finished reporting how he survived the attack and considered that the sect’s failure to send reinforcements, rather than the defenders’ actions, had caused the garden’s fall.
• Elder Yan conferred with Elder Sun and Elder Fang before declaring that the six survivors shared some responsibility for the sect’s losses.
• Elder Yan confiscated the six cultivators’ stipends for seven years and ordered Yan Hongyu to serve at the Main Camp on the Frontline Battlefield for fourteen years.
• Liu Yu, Yan Hongyu, Li Butong, and the other survivors accepted the punishment without objection.
• Elder Sun agreed to Elder Yan’s arrangement, and the three Golden Core elders left after warning the survivors to be cautious on future missions.

After the elders left, Liu Yu reflected on his solitary path to immortality, returned to his cave abode, and recovered from the exhausting day. He resumed cultivation and prepared to replace Essence-Refining Pills with Azure Origin Pills now that he had gathered the required herbs.

• Liu Yu felt reassured that ordinary Golden Core Cultivators could not see through his Spirit-Concealing Art, then parted ways with the others after the elders departed.
• Liu Yu wandered through Moonwatch City's East Market and concluded that he would pursue immortality alone, accepting the loneliness that came with guarding the Immortal Mansion's secret.
• Liu Yu returned to his cave abode, washed, and slept for twelve hours to recover from the battle and mental strain.
• Liu Yu swallowed an Essence-Refining Pill and cultivated the fourth level of the Azure Yang Art, intending to refine Azure Origin Pills with the herbs he had gathered.

After preparing his Storage Bag to withstand scrutiny, Liu Yu examined the white-bearded old man’s spoils and found a rare escape art and a pill formula for restoring blood essence. He realized the Blood-Melting Pill could protect his chances of forming a golden core, and he had all the ingredients needed to refine it.

• Liu Yu transferred his hidden resources from the Immortal Mansion into his Storage Bag, leaving only possessions appropriate to his cultivation level.
• Liu Yu examined the white-bearded old man’s belongings and set aside his Magical Artifacts, spirit stones, and ordinary Mixed Origin Art.
• Liu Yu studied the Blood-Sacrificial Escape art and learned it could boost his escape speed by thirty percent using his blood essence.
• Liu Yu learned that damage to blood essence could undermine a cultivator’s physical foundation and prevent the formation of a flawless golden core.
• Liu Yu found that he possessed all the ingredients for the Blood-Melting Pill, memorized its formula, and stored the jade slip safely.

Liu Yu explored the Immortal Mansion as his nascent Primordial Spirit, planted an origin-returning flower in the Black Spirit Field, and examined spirit herb cultivation records. He returned to his body before his Primordial Spirit’s limit, leaving the flower to grow toward the Azure Origin Pill’s final ingredient.

• Liu Yu entered the Immortal Mansion with his nascent Primordial Spirit and observed that it had grown to the size of a human head.
• Liu Yu searched the seed cabin, retrieved the origin-returning flower, and planted it in the Black Spirit Field with a Mid-Grade Spirit Stone.
• Liu Yu calculated that the flower needed thirty-five hours of accelerated growth to produce seeds, but he could not keep his Primordial Spirit outside his body that long.
• Liu Yu searched the three Spirit Planters' Storage Bags and found four rare seed varieties and three books of cultivation notes.
• Liu Yu returned to his body, put two books into his Storage Bag, and began reading the remaining book.

Liu Yu harvested mature spirit herbs and began refining Azure Origin Pills to improve his cultivation amid the growing danger in the Chu Kingdom's Cultivation World. His first attempt produced eight charred pills, and he studied the failure to prepare for another try.

• Liu Yu tended the spirit herbs in the Immortal Mansion, replaced their spirit stones, collected mature herbs and seeds, and harvested four fruits from the dragonblood tree.
• Liu Yu took the ingredients for Azure Origin Pills to the alchemy room because Essence-Refining Pills were becoming less effective and the uncertain conflict made him anxious to grow stronger.
• Liu Yu considered that he might abandon the Primordial Yang Sect if it sent him on a mission that would effectively cost him his life.
• Liu Yu used foundation establishment true fire and the Mystic Yellow Cauldron to refine Azure Origin Pills, but opened the cauldron too late and turned all eight pills to charcoal.
• Liu Yu cleaned the cauldron, left the alchemy room, and reviewed the failed refinement in his alchemy handbook.

Liu Yu refined Azure Origin Pills to improve his cultivation, but his poor success rate and outdated alchemy technique remained obstacles. After consuming a pill, he confirmed its potent effects and saw a path to progress through Foundation Establishment late stage if he encountered no bottlenecks.

• Liu Yu spent four days cultivating spirit herbs in the Immortal Mansion and obtained fifty sets of ingredients for Azure Origin Pills.
• Liu Yu spent thirteen days refining the pills, succeeding twice; one batch yielded eight pills, while the other produced only inferior pills.
• Liu Yu concluded that his unfamiliarity with Azure Origin Pills, their difficulty, and his basic alchemy technique caused his low success rate.
• Liu Yu swallowed an Azure Origin Pill and circulated the Azure Yang Art to refine its potent medicinal power into magical power.
• Liu Yu estimated that daily use of Azure Origin Pills could bring him to the peak of Foundation Establishment early stage in about ten years, and he had gathered most ingredients for pills needed at the middle stage.

Liu Yu endured the painful tempering of his nascent primordial spirit with the Divine Preservation Art and reaffirmed his determination to pursue longevity. While waiting for a new assignment after the failure of the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden task, he stayed in East City Courtyard and steadily advanced his cultivation and studies.

• Liu Yu cultivated the Divine Preservation Art cautiously, enduring alternating cold and heat until he completed a cycle without injuring his primordial spirit.
• Liu Yu reflected on his past and resolved to escape ordinariness by pursuing strength, will, wisdom, and longevity.
• After the Bing-Character No. 6 Spirit Herb Garden assignment failed, Liu Yu remained in East City Courtyard while awaiting another task from the Elders Council.
• Liu Yu accelerated his cultivation by refining Azure Origin Pills with spirit stones and purifying them using the Azure Yang Demonic Flame.
• Liu Yu continued studying the fifth level of the Azure Yang Art and advanced the Spirit-Concealing Art toward perfection.