Chapter Summaries

Li Ping considered buying a Scarlet Flood Dragon youngling at an underground auction despite fearing the Flood Dragon Clan's retaliation. Before he could bid, a transformed Scarlet Flood Dragon attacked the auction and sensed that his youngling was on Li Ping.

• An auctioneer revealed a captive Scarlet Flood Dragon youngling and set its opening bid at two hundred and fifty thousand spirit stones.
• Li Ping weighed the youngling's potential against the risk of provoking the Flood Dragon Clan, then decided to buy it.
• Bidders drove the price past eight hundred and fifty thousand spirit stones as Li Ping prepared to join the bidding.
• A fourth-tier transformed Scarlet Flood Dragon blasted through the auction hall and accused the humans of capturing his junior.
• The Scarlet Flood Dragon sensed that the youngling was on Li Ping, and the nearby cultivators moved away from him.

At the underground auction, a Fourth-Tier Scarlet Flood Dragon attacked the auction host to recover his caged descendant, giving Li Ping a chance to flee. The island’s formation trapped the cultivators, and seven Nascent Soul Cultivators confronted the dragon as Li Ping tried to escape again.

• The Fourth-Tier Scarlet Flood Dragon attacked the auction host after seeing his descendant imprisoned in a cage, and Li Ping used the distraction to flee the hall.
• Li Ping discovered that the island’s formation had been destroyed, but a quasi-fourth-tier grand formation rose and trapped the escaping cultivators.
• The auction host appeared unharmed and announced that the auction would continue, while the Scarlet Flood Dragon burst from the ruins and seven Nascent Soul Cultivators intercepted him.
• The Scarlet Flood Dragon accused the humans of violating the Truce Pact, and Li Ping suspected the auction force was connected to the Immortal Alliance.
• Li Ping tried to escape while the Nascent Soul Cultivators confronted the dragon, but the auction host called for him to wait.

Li Ping realized the auction was a Demonic Path trap meant to kill the fourth-tier Scarlet Flood Dragon and reignite war, so he fought his way past the cultivators blocking his escape. He escaped through the formation with the Desolate Fire Sparrow, and Xiao Yunzhi recognized him.

• Li Ping inferred that the Demonic Path had arranged the auction as a long-term plot to kill the fourth-tier Scarlet Flood Dragon and disrupt the peace between humanity and the Eastern Sea's Demon Race.
• Li Ping refused to stay when a core formation late stage old man ordered him to stop, and he dodged the old man's flying sword to attack him at close range.
• Li Ping shattered the old man's defenses with the Dragon-Slaying Guillotine and fourth-tier chilling flame, killed him, and took his Storage Bag and Spirit Beast Bag.
• Li Ping summoned the Desolate Fire Sparrow, which opened a hole in the quasi-fourth tier formation, and the pair escaped.
• Xiao Yunzhi recognized Li Ping through the Desolate Fire Sparrow while watching the scene in the formation's control hall.

After Li Ping killed Deacon Yuan and fled the island, Xiao Yunzhi realized that her long-missed Brother Li had become a formidable core formation cultivator. The seven nascent soul cultivators killed the Scarlet Flood Dragon, while Li Ping changed course to intercept Chao Xuan; Xiao Yunzhi finally saw her ancestor avenged.

• Xiao Yunzhi recognized Li Ping and felt relieved and proud to see his strength, though she still could not meet him.
• The male cultivator declined to pursue Li Ping, and seven nascent soul cultivators attacked the Scarlet Flood Dragon as the island’s cultivators tried to break out.
• Li Ping fled nearly a thousand li, heard the Scarlet Flood Dragon’s final roar, and concluded the dragon had died.
• The Earth Spirit Mouse detected Chao Xuan flying north, so Li Ping changed course to intercept him.
• Xiao Yunzhi learned that the Scarlet Flood Dragon had died and accepted Yu’s congratulations on her ancestor’s revenge.

Yu Guanyun failed to learn where Xiao Yunzhi had hidden the Three-Yin Soul-Slaying Sword before Granny Suyue took her away, while Li Ping intercepted Chao Xuan and demanded a sincere reward for his help. The chapter ended with Chao Xuan fearing Li Ping wanted the Nascent Soul Transformation Pill in his storage bag.

• Yu Guanyun urged Xiao Yunzhi to reveal the Three-Yin Soul-Slaying Sword's whereabouts so it could be sealed, but she claimed it had been lost in spatial turbulence.
• Granny Suyue arrived, took Xiao Yunzhi away, and left Yu Guanyun without a definite answer.
• Yu Guanyun proposed that his Seventh Uncle and the others kill Granny Suyue, but his uncle refused because they could not ensure her death and feared Great Scholar Song's retaliation.
• Yu Guanyun asked about Steward Yuan's killer, and his Seventh Uncle ordered him to identify Li Ping.
• Li Ping caught up with Chao Xuan after he fled the island and demanded more than empty words of thanks.
• Chao Xuan worried that Li Ping had stopped him to take his Nascent Soul Transformation Pill.

Li Ping took two treasure-grade Alchemy Furnaces and several spirit herbs from Chao Xuan, leaving him the Nascent Soul Transformation Pill before departing. On his Flying Boat, Li Ping considered the techniques he could inherit and examined the meager spoils from the late-stage Core Formation cultivator he had killed.

• Chao Xuan decided he could not defeat Li Ping and offered him his Storage Bag in gratitude for saving his life.
• Li Ping found two treasure-grade Alchemy Furnaces in the bag, took them and several millennium spirit herbs, and returned the remaining possessions, including the Nascent Soul Transformation Pill.
• Chao Xuan discovered the pill was still in his Storage Bag and felt relieved that he could still attempt to reach the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Aboard his Flying Boat, Li Ping considered using the Alchemy Furnaces and Immortal Flow Dew to inherit two fourth-tier techniques, but noted that Gray Island lacked capacity for everything he needed to cultivate.
• Li Ping searched the dead cultivator's Storage Bag, found only a little more than a hundred thousand spirit stones' worth of goods, and lamented that the Scarlet Flood Dragon had arrived too late.

Li Ping discovered that the scarlet flood dragon hatchling was in the Spirit Beast Bag and began trying to make it submit. Meanwhile, Xiao Yunzhi admitted to her master that the disguised man might be her sweetheart, and her master revealed her plan to improve Xiao Yunzhi’s Sun-Moon Ring with flood dragon reverse scales.

• Li Ping released the scarlet flood dragon hatchling from its cage, delighted that it had survived in the Spirit Beast Bag.
• Li Ping froze the outside of the hatchling’s cage to make the fire-element creature suffer, then stored it away as he flew back toward the continent.
• Xiao Yunzhi told her master that the man who killed the Yu Household Steward might be an old acquaintance, while avoiding confirming that he was Li Ping.
• Xiao Yunzhi’s master teased her about the man being her sweetheart, and Xiao Yunzhi blushingly admitted it.
• Xiao Yunzhi’s master showed her a scarlet flood dragon reverse scale and said she would use it to improve the Crimson Flame Wheel, then seek a frost flood dragon scale for the Cold Flame Wheel.

Teng Feng traveled with Minggu toward the Windchaser Tribe after agreeing to join a Sea Folk woman, while Li Ping returned to his hidden refuge and chose to protect the unconscious Wei Yiling. Li Ping planned to leave for the Western Wasteland once Wei Yiling recovered, despite the growing dangers in Great Zhou.

• Teng Feng recalled how a mission to capture a Scarlet Flood Dragon hatchling left him fleeing to Sea Folk territory after the Yinghai Trading Company expedition went wrong.
• Teng Feng explained that a poisoned encounter with a Sea Folk woman led him to agree to accompany her back to the Windchaser Tribe, though he feared meeting her family and its fourth-tier expert.
• Li Ping returned safely to the underground refuge and confirmed that Feng Xishuang and Meng Wanjun had remained undiscovered.
• Li Ping examined Wei Yiling and found that the soul-nourishing wood had restored much of her damaged divine soul, but she might not wake for another two or three years.
• Li Ping decided to stay and protect Wei Yiling until she awoke, then leave Great Zhou for the Western Wasteland.

Li Ping subdued the Scarlet Flood Dragon hatchling and spent a year cultivating in seclusion before seeking news in Spirit Firmament City. He learned that the Eastern Sea beast tide had grown far worse, and he worried it might force him and Wei Yiling to abandon their underground cave abode.

• Li Ping thawed the Scarlet Flood Dragon hatchling, fed him Beast-Feeding Pills, placed restrictions in his sea of consciousness, and stored him in his Spirit Beast Bag to later be raised by Meng Wanjun.
• After a year in seclusion, Li Ping disguised himself and visited Spirit Firmament City to investigate reports of a beast tide in the Eastern Sea.
• Li Ping heard that transformed demon beasts and the Flood Dragon Clan had driven demon beasts toward the coast, destroying the Ai family's Kongming Island and driving up prices.
• Li Ping bought intelligence from the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion and learned that the Immortal Alliance had sent several Nascent Soul elders, including two of the Three Elders of the Spirit Firmament, to the Eastern Sea.
• Li Ping flew away from Spirit Firmament City and worried that the crisis might force him and the still-unconscious Wei Yiling to leave their underground cave abode and risk exposing themselves.

The Immortal Alliance’s leaders gathered in Heavenly Dao City to investigate the killing of a transformed scarlet flood dragon and prepare for a possible war with the Flood Dragon Clan. They left the identities of Granny Suyue’s accomplices unresolved while mobilizing forces for the Eastern Sea and tasking Yu with keeping the mortal world calm.

• Daoist Xuan Yun explained that the Flood Dragon Clan had broken its Truce Pact after a transformed scarlet flood dragon was slain, and called for an investigation and preparations for war.
• Old Devil Fang reported that Granny Suyue had vanished, prompting accusations among the Nascent Soul Cultivators about who had helped her.
• Old Devil Fang and Daoist Xuan Yun each denied that their respective paths were involved, and the alliance agreed to investigate once Suyue was found.
• Daoist Xuan Yun and Old Devil Fang agreed to oversee the Eastern Sea, while the alliance arranged to recall Great Scholar Song and mobilize cultivators and resources.
• Daoist Xuan Yun asked Fellow Daoist Yu to maintain order among mortals, and Yu promised to keep cultivation conflicts from disrupting their lives.

Li Ping escaped the escalating war in Great Zhou and returned to the Western Wastes with Meng Wanjun, leaving Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang to pursue their own plans. In Windmist Immortal City, he learned that his old friends faced pressure from the Three Sects, who threatened to blockade the city unless its leaders surrendered ten years of earnings.

• Li Ping learned that the Eastern Sea war had worsened and decided to leave Great Zhou for the Western Wastes.
• Wei Yiling awakened, accepted Li Ping’s soul-nourishing wood, and left with Feng Xishuang after she and Li Ping shared a final night together.
• Li Ping and Meng Wanjun reassembled the teleportation formation and used it to return to the Western Wastes, then arrived at Windmist Immortal City.
• Li Ping recalled his old friends and wondered how Zhang Tie and the others were faring.
• Ji Shuwen told Windmist Immortal City’s leaders that the Three Sects demanded its earnings from the past decade and threatened to blockade the city; Cheng Yao, Gu Musheng, Bai Qing, and Wang Xingwei offered their views.

Li Ping returned to Azure Dragon Mountain after more than forty years away, reunited with Ji Shuwen and the others, and learned how their families and Windmist Immortal City had changed. He heard that the Western Wasteland had remained unusually peaceful and that Qi Hanmo had formed his Golden Core, with a ceremony planned for next year.

• Ji Shuwen received a message that Li Ping had returned, and she and the others flew to the mountain gate to welcome him.
• Li Ping found Zhang Tie nearing the end of his lifespan and used the Longevity Art to restore the years he had lost.
• Bai Qing discovered that Li Ping had advanced to the middle stage of Core Formation, and the group exchanged news about their families and the city.
• Ji Shuwen explained that she had expelled the Three Sects from Windmist Immortal City and described her conflict with Huang Yan over taking control of Purple Cloud Valley.
• Li Ping learned that the Western Wasteland's righteous and demonic factions had avoided major battles for decades and that Xu Guike had not appeared.
• Bai Qing told Li Ping that Qi Hanmo had formed his Golden Core and would hold a ceremony the following year.

At a banquet in Windmist Immortal City, Li Ping reunited with old friends’ descendants and revealed his Core Formation middle-stage cultivation. He then traveled to the Jiang Kingdom to pay respects to his master and Daoist Ji, and told Yan Hengchuan that he would remain in the region for about a century and allow the three lineages to openly develop Little Plum Mountain’s third-tier spirit vein.

• Ji Shuwen introduced Li Ping and his cultivation to the banquet guests, while Li Ping rewarded descendants of Zhang Tie, Gu Musheng, Cheng Yao, Bai Qing, and Meng Wanjun with pills.
• Li Ping learned that Wu Xiao was the grandson of his old acquaintance Wu Feng, and Meng Wanjun explained how the Meng Family had recovered after Meng Ya reached Foundation Establishment.
• After several days in Windmist Immortal City, Li Ping declined Ji Shuwen’s invitation to stay and departed for the Jiang Kingdom with Meng Wanjun.
• Li Ping paid respects at his master’s memorial tablet and to Daoist Ji, then reunited with the elderly Yan Hengchuan at Azure Peak Lake.
• Yan Hengchuan described the Yan, Ji, and Yu lineages’ prosperity and their secret use of Little Plum Mountain’s third-tier spirit vein.
• Li Ping said he expected to remain in the Jiang Kingdom for about a hundred years and allowed the lineages to reveal and develop the spirit vein, while warning that they still needed to raise a Core Formation cultivator of their own.

Li Ping opened the underground Spirit Pool to the surface and reorganized the third-tier spiritual land for the Yan and Ji households. After discovering a rare source of cold baleful energy, he used it to nurture a strengthened Copper Corpse and agreed to preside over a celebration, leaving him poised to publicly protect the households’ claim to the spiritual vein.

• Li Ping excavated a vast pit above the Underground Cold Pool and expanded the formation to regulate spiritual qi at different depths, then had Yan Hengchuan and Ji Zhe’s people take charge of the surrounding land.
• Li Ping investigated the source of the Cold Pool’s chill and found a small hollow where high-grade cold baleful energy seeped from a fissure.
• Li Ping used the Corpse-Devouring Art to merge his two Copper Corpses into one, then placed the surviving corpse in the hollow to absorb the cold baleful energy.
• Meng Wanjun told Li Ping that Yan Hengchuan planned a celebration for the spiritual vein’s reopening and wanted his approval.
• Li Ping agreed to emerge from seclusion and preside over the celebration.

Li Ping planned to strengthen his cultivation and settle old scores while the Yan, Ji, and Yu families built a city around a third-tier spiritual vein. Their celebration drew the Jiang Kingdom’s major powers, and True Person Jiang privately questioned Li Ping about his new stronghold.

• Li Ping entrusted Meng Wanjun with the Scarlet Flood Dragon Hatchling, Earth Spirit Mouse, and Desolate Fire Sparrow, and warned her to keep the Flood Dragon secret.
• Li Ping postponed inheriting fourth-tier alchemy and spirit-brewing techniques until he could grow the needed materials on Second Gray Island, and resolved to kill Hua Wuji and Old Devil Wu after the celebration.
• The Yan, Ji, and Yu families built their city and announced that Li Ping had returned as a Core Formation middle-stage True Person with a third-tier spiritual vein.
• Yan Hengchuan welcomed the celebration’s guests, including Ji Shuwen, True Person Jiang, and True Person Lei, who arrived with Yan Jing and his Dao companion.
• Li Ping emerged from seclusion to host True Persons Jiang, Lei, and Ji, and True Person Jiang asked why he had not known about the third-tier spiritual vein in the Jiang Kingdom.

Li Ping secured a peaceful arrangement with the Jiang Lineage, defeated True Person Lei in a spar, and gained a reputation as a cultivator whose strength rivaled the Core Formation late stage. Meanwhile, Chixiaozi considered the reasons behind the news spreading, while Huang Yan faced pressure to support a blockade of Windmist Immortal City.

• True Person Jiang offered peaceful coexistence after Li Ping explained that the underground spirit vein belonged to the Yan and Ji lineages, and True Person Lei invited him to join the Crimson Flame Sect as a Guest Elder, but he refused.
• Li Ping defeated True Person Lei in a spar at the Three Families' city-founding celebration, and reports of his formidable strength spread across the Western Wastes Cultivation World.
• Chixiaozi questioned True Person Lei about her defeat, and she suggested Ji Shuwen had publicized the spar to ease pressure from Purple Cloud Valley; Chixiaozi accepted that Ji Shuwen's actions were understandable.
• Representatives of Purple Cloud Valley, the Sword-Washing Pool, and the Three Azure Wood Sects demanded that Huang Yan explain Ji Shuwen's withholding of Windmist Immortal City's revenue and asked whether he would support sealing off the Cloudmist Mountains.
• Huang Yan admitted he knew nothing of Windmist Immortal City's affairs and realized he could no longer delay giving the gathered Core Formation Cultivators an answer about the blockade.

Huang Yan failed to stop the Three Sects from approving a blockade of the Cloudmist Mountains, but news that Li Ping had defeated True Person Lei made them reconsider and reconcile with Ji Shuwen. After the Scarlet Flood Dragon advanced, Li Ping postponed his revenge again, traveled with Bai Qing to the Qi Kingdom, and reunited with Qi Hanmo at the Academy.

• Huang Yan resisted the Three Sects’ demands to blockade the Cloudmist Mountains, but the sects passed the resolution while he stayed silent.
• Brother Peng received confirmation that Li Ping had defeated True Person Lei, prompting the Three Sects to withdraw their hard-line stance and seek reconciliation with Ji Shuwen.
• The Scarlet Flood Dragon awakened his True Dragon bloodline, advanced toward the second tier, and displayed his power on the Spirit Island.
• Bai Qing told Li Ping that his victory had secured the Immortal City’s position, offered him ten thousand spirit stones, and asked him to attend Qi Hanmo’s Core Formation celebration.
• Li Ping accepted Bai Qing’s invitation and escorted a Jiang Lineage cultivator to the Academy in the Qi Kingdom.
• Qi Hanmo welcomed Li Ping and Bai Qing, and the three brothers reunited at the Academy.

Li Ping learned how Qi Hanmo had formed his golden core through orthodox Confucian cultivation and heard that Xiao Yunzhi was alive in Great Zhou, where she had killed Lu Old Devil. At Qi Hanmo’s ceremony, Li Ping reunited with Xu Guike and Lin Yue, then spent the night with them reflecting on those they had lost and the long road of cultivation.

• Qi Hanmo explained that he had traveled across the Western Wasteland to cultivate righteous vitality and establish his merit: driving out the Four Demonic Sects and restoring peace.
• Qi Hanmo told Li Ping that Xiao Yunzhi was alive in Great Zhou, had killed Lu Old Devil, and planned to return to the Western Wasteland; he asked Li Ping and Bai Qing to keep the news secret.
• Bai Qing left so Qi Hanmo could tell Li Ping the secret, and Li Ping wondered how Xiao Yunzhi had become powerful enough to kill Lu Old Devil.
• At Qi Hanmo’s core formation ceremony, Li Ping reunited with Xu Guike and Lin Yue, congratulated Lin Yue on forming her golden core, and observed the Academy’s high regard for Qi Hanmo.
• Li Ping refused to escort a Jiang Lineage cultivator back to the Jiang Kingdom and later joined Qi Hanmo, Bai Qing, Xu Guike, and Lin Yue for wine and conversation.
• Lin Yue learned that Qi Hanmo’s senior sister had died after failing to form a golden core, and Xu Guike remembered how Windmist True Person and Dai Sangyu had shaped his life.

Li Ping postponed his revenge after discovering that fiends had devastated the Four Demonic Sects’ territories and their Core Formation cultivators had vanished. After he reported what he found to the Defender Alliance and spent a year in seclusion, Yan Hengchuan told him that the Alliance had conquered the Western Wasteland and destroyed the four sects.

• Li Ping declined Qiu Changfeng’s invitation to join the Defender Alliance and traveled to the Yuan Kingdom to seek revenge on Old Devil Wu and Hua Wuji.
• At the Acacia Sect, Li Ping captured and soul-searched cultivators, learning that all five of its Core Formation cultivators had left and that fiends had been devouring people across the demonic territories.
• Li Ping found the Nine Chariots Kingdom nearly deserted, discovered that the Bloodshadow Church’s Core Formation cultivators were also missing, and abandoned his revenge to return to the Qi Kingdom.
• Li Ping sent the Defender Alliance intelligence about the missing cultivators and the fiends, then entered seclusion for a year.
• Yan Hengchuan told Li Ping that the Defender Alliance had retaken the Western Wasteland and destroyed the four demonic sects; Li Ping reacted with deep concern.

Li Ping investigated why the Four Demonic Sects had abandoned five kingdoms and learned the Academy would decide who ruled them at a year-end ceremony. Gu Musheng and Cheng Yao asked him to support rebuilding the Heavenly Profound Sect in the Nine Chariots Kingdom, but Li Ping withheld his answer until he could learn Xu Guike’s position.

• Li Ping suspected Xiao Yunzhi or the Yinghai Trading Company had caused the Four Demonic Sects' Core Formation cultivators to flee, then accepted the Academy's invitation to its ceremony on Donghua Mountain.
• Li Ping inspected the Copper Corpse, which had absorbed the cold baleful energy, and planned to make an artifact to collect the energy once the corpse finished its nourishment.
• Gu Musheng, Cheng Yao, Wang Xingwei, and Bai Qing visited Li Ping with Meng Wanjun to discuss the future of their lineages.
• Gu Musheng explained that the Academy would decide who controlled the reclaimed kingdoms and argued that the Heavenly Profound Sect should return to the Nine Chariots Kingdom.
• Li Ping considered the conflict between their ambitions and Xu Guike's grievances, then said the matter required careful consideration.