Chapter Summaries

The Second Elder explained the Black Tortoise Stakes competition to the Southern Spirit Sect disciples while Lan Yue used her system to gather information on rival sects. Lan Yue then pulled Yun Xi and their companions aside to discuss making money, as Gu Zhuo and Teng Snake were left out of the conversation.

• A Black Snake Sect disciple threatened Lan Yue, but Teng Snake sneezed him away and frightened the rest of the group into fleeing.
• Three days later, the Second Elder explained that the first event, the Black Tortoise Stakes, took place within the Elder Black Tortoise Formation and warned the disciples not to linger on the stakes.
• Lan Yue used the system's location search to find information about sect disciples, including their names, ages, and cultivation levels.
• Lan Yue asked Yun Xi if she wanted to make a fortune and gathered their companions for a secret discussion.
• Yun Xi set Gu Zhuo aside with Little Black Snake, while Teng Snake looked forward to seeing the Scarlet Moon Sect members.

Lan Yue and her companions partnered with the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to sell information about the competitors, earning a large sum before the competition began. As the sect headed to the arena, Qing Zhu warned Lan Yue to stay safe and told her that Xing Yue and Jiang Li were there to help.

• Lan Yue and her companions sold their competitor information through the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, which offered jade slips at several price levels.
• Lan Yue and her companions returned to the Second Elder, whose warning about the competition exposed that he had heard Lan Yue's thoughts about their profits.
• The Second Elder explained the random draw and cautioned Lan Yue to be careful because Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators would compete together.
• Qing Zhu told Lan Yue to stay safe and said Xing Yue and Jiang Li were present to help if anything happened.
• The black Teng Snake spotted his wife and hurried Lan Yue along.

Lan Yue met the Scarlet Moon Sect Master at the competition, while the Teng Snake recognized her as his wife and was devastated when she failed to recognize him. After learning the draw-lots schedule, Lan Yue prepared to compete that afternoon, and Qing Zhu noticed the Teng Snake seemed to be crying.

• The Scarlet Moon Sect Master greeted Yun Chong and Lan Yue, then advised her disciples to cooperate with the Southern Spirit Sect and Jade Light Sect during the competition.
• The Teng Snake grew bashful at seeing the Scarlet Moon Sect Master, but his excitement turned to disbelief when she did not recognize him.
• Qing Zhu wondered whether Lan Yue's unusually expressive spirit snake was unwell.
• Baili Xingzhou explained that competitors with red slips would compete that afternoon and those with black slips would compete three days later.
• Lan Yue learned that she and Yun Xi had drawn red slips, while Senior Brother and the Twin Siblings had drawn black ones.
• Qing Zhu told Lan Yue that her spirit snake seemed to be crying.

Lan Yue averted a disaster by handing the tearful Teng Snake Demon Lord to the Scarlet Moon Sect Master, then joined the first round of the competition inside the Black Tortoise Grand Formation. As the formation transported her to a field of Black Tortoise Stakes, a mysterious light entered her Nine-Story Formation Pagoda, while the stewards sensed the formation had activated unusually quickly.

• Lan Yue rushed to Little Black Snake and passed it to the Scarlet Moon Sect Master before its tears could flood the North Ridge Sacred Ground.
• The Scarlet Moon Sect Master recognized Black Little Snake as the Teng Snake Demon Lord, while the Southern Spirit Sect Master and Jade Light Sect Master deduced its identity.
• Lan Yue and the other contestants gathered at the Black Tortoise Grand Formation, where a White-Robed Steward explained the three-day survival round and its wooden-token rankings.
• The Black Tortoise Grand Formation activated, and Lan Yue sensed her Nine-Story Formation Pagoda spin as a dark-gold speck of light entered it.
• Lan Yue appeared inside the formation among Black Tortoise Stakes, while Nangong Chi remarked that the formation had activated faster than usual.

Lan Yue and Yun Xi entered the Black Tortoise Grand Formation, where Voice Transmission Stones could not be used and contestants had to discover the formation’s rules. Lan Yue learned that the Black Tortoise Stakes could equalize cultivators’ strength, while she debated whether to keep hiding through the competition.

• Elder Wan investigated the Black Tortoise Grand Formation and found it operating normally, then saw Lan Yue bite a stake and get knocked away.
• Lan Yue tried to contact her friends, found her Voice Transmission Stone useless, and began studying the formation in the Nine-Story Formation Pagoda so she could hide safely.
• Yun Xi arrived on a Black Tortoise Stake, found that she could not use her Voice Transmission Stone, and prepared to defend herself.
• A Foundation Establishment cultivator complained about competing against Golden Core disciples before a Golden Core opponent attacked him with unexpectedly weak strength.
• Lan Yue learned from the Nine-Story Formation Pagoda that the stakes could bring cultivators of different levels down to the same level, and wondered whether to keep coasting through the competition.

Yun Xi and Yuan Shuo discovered rules of the Black Tortoise Stakes while searching for Lan Yue during the competition. Lan Yue found a way to disguise herself as a stake’s red snake and avoid being challenged.

• Yun Xi escaped a transforming Black Tortoise Stake, then defeated a green-robed cultivator after the stake suppressed his cultivation and trapped them together.
• Yuan Shuo defeated several opponents and learned that fighters on the stakes had their cultivation equalized, while losing an Identity Token sent them out of the formation.
• Yuan Shuo found Yun Xi, and they exchanged what they had learned about the stakes and the competition.
• Yun Xi suggested that she and Yuan Shuo swap stakes before their fifteen-minute time limits expired, but they still could not find Lan Yue.
• Lan Yue captured the little snake on her stake, tossed it into her space, and transformed into a red snake to avoid attracting challengers.

Lan Yue secretly stole wooden tokens from two fighting teams while disguised as a snake, causing their members to be teleported away and leaving the commanders to blame each other. She concealed her role as the surviving cultivators grew wary of an unseen token thief.

• Lan Yue watched two teams fight and criticized their attacks through her inner voice, prompting them to fight more fiercely.
• Lan Yue sent out the little snake, the Rootless Fruit Tree seedling, the Heavenly Black Spider, and Silver Snow to steal the fighters' wooden tokens.
• The two teams dwindled as their tokens disappeared, until Hei Yan and Wang Yi were left facing each other.
• Hei Yan accused Wang Yi of stealing his subordinates' tokens, and Wang Yi took credit for the thirty-seven tokens that had appeared on his back.
• Hei Yan and Wang Yi fought again, then vanished with the tokens, alarming cultivators on the Black Tortoise Stakes.
• Lan Yue concealed her involvement and settled back down, pleased that she had outsmarted everyone.

Lan Yue hid inside the Black Tortoise Grand Formation and enjoyed gossip while other cultivators mistook her for a highly cultivated elder testing them. Her thoughts exposed rumors about the Holy Spirit Sect’s head disciple, prompting the elders to investigate the formation without realizing Lan Yue was the source.

• Rumors spread that a powerful elder was secretly testing contestants inside the Black Tortoise Grand Formation, making Yun Xi and the other competitors more cautious.
• Jiang Li searched the formation for Lan Yue, worried she had been eliminated, until her thoughts revealed she was still inside and enjoying the view.
• Lan Yue’s gossip about the Holy Spirit Sect’s head disciple distracted contestants, and one was eliminated after his opponent stole his Identity Token.
• The eliminated disciples cried outside the formation because they could no longer hear the gossip, while elders comforted them and heard their account of the supposed hidden elder.
• The elders concluded that an outsider might be interfering and agreed to enter the formation secretly, while Lan Yue remained unaware that they were coming.

Ge Yuan and the Holy Spirit Sect disciples heard Lan Yue expose Ge Yuan’s secret online romance and his lover’s identity. The revelation left Ge Yuan terrified as his master’s enraged roar sounded.

• The Holy Spirit Sect disciples angrily condemned the voice and vowed to punish whoever had insulted their sect and the Holy Spirit God.
• Lan Yue revealed that Ge Yuan had secretly sent resources to a woman he had never met, whom he spoke with through a Sound-Transmitting Jade Token.
• Ge Yuan dropped his dagger when Lan Yue connected his online romance to Jiao'er, and he feared the Holy Spirit God had exposed him.
• Lan Yue revealed that Jiao'er was Ge Yuan’s master’s lover, and Ge Yuan heard his master roar in anger.

Lan Yue exposed Ge Yuan’s affair with his master’s lover, revealing that the Holy Spirit Sect’s Sect Master was involved with her too. After discovering that the woman had many other online suitors and that she had created a Sound-Transmitting Jade Token resembling an early mobile phone, Lan Yue wondered whether it signaled something important.

• Lan Yue’s inner voice revealed that Ge Yuan had seduced the Holy Spirit Sect Grand Elder’s lover, and the Grand Elder raged at his disciple.
• Lan Yue revealed that the Holy Spirit Sect’s Sect Master also had a close relationship with the woman, turning the Sect Master and Grand Elder against each other.
• Lan Yue disclosed that the woman had several other romantic prospects she had met through online dating, and Ge Yuan burst into wild laughter.
• Lan Yue reconsidered the Sound-Transmitting Jade Token mentioned in the gossip and purchased Tong Zhuo’s information.
• Lan Yue saw that Tong Zhuo had created the Sound-Transmitting Jade Token and realized it resembled an early prototype of a mobile phone.

Lan Yue realized the Sound-Transmitting Jade Token could support messages and group chats, prompting the surrounding sects to imagine its uses. The Holy Spirit Sect's Sect Master remained silenced while the elders considered the token's potential, though it had yet to be produced.

• Lan Yue marveled that the Sound-Transmitting Jade Token could send messages and host real-time group chats.
• The North Ridge Sacred Ground's stewards sealed the Holy Spirit Sect's Sect Master's voice after he threatened Tong Jiao Jiao and her lovers.
• The Southern Spirit Sect elders discussed how the token might replace Voice Transmission Stones and enable written conversations.
• The Second Elder suggested that a chat group could let many people communicate together, and nearby sect elders recognized its potential.
• The elders imagined using group chats to coordinate against demon abyss rifts, communicate between sects, issue missions, and teach disciples.

Tong Zhuo and the sect leaders became interested in developing Lan Yue’s Sound-Transmitting Jade Token into a phone that could help deduce ancient formations. Lan Yue instead persuaded her system to spend points on Match-Three, leaving it to disappear in exasperation.

• Tong Zhuo set aside her grudge against Lan Yue and listened for ideas about making a phone.
• The North Ridge Sacred Ground stewards and other sect leaders realized Lan Yue’s ideas could greatly speed up formation deduction and tried to recruit her from the Holy Spirit Sect.
• The Holy Spirit Sect Master accused the other sect leaders of being adulterers and fainted as they argued over Lan Yue.
• Southern Spirit Sect elders wondered whether Lan Yue had been slacking, while Lan Yue continued wishing for phone functions and mini-games.
• Lan Yue spent a thousand points to play Match-Three and invited the system to join, but it vanished.

Lan Yue found Yun Xi and Yuan Shuo while disguised as a red snake and persuaded them to help her steal Identity Tokens. She created three controllable Black Tortoise Stakes for their disguises, but a nearby boy noticed the new stakes and saw one of the snakes smile.

• Lan Yue answered Yun Xi and Yuan Shuo's calls and revealed that she was coiled around Yun Xi's Black Tortoise Stake in red-snake form.
• Lan Yue told her friends she had already collected Identity Tokens by secretly stealing them and invited them to join her.
• Yun Xi agreed to take part, and Yuan Shuo joined her and Lan Yue.
• Lan Yue created three identical Black Tortoise Stakes, disguised Yun Xi and Yuan Shuo as red snakes, and placed the stakes at the edge so they could lie low until the next day.
• A chubby boy noticed extra Black Tortoise Stakes nearby and told his brother he had seen one of the red snakes smile.

Zou Wan and the other contestants watched people vanish from the Black Tortoise Grand Formation, and the ejected cultivators accused the North Ridge Sacred Ground of unfairly letting an elder interfere. The North Ridge Holy Lord faced the growing uproar and brought out the Heaven and Earth Mirror.

• Zou Wan warned the Southern Spirit Sect disciples to be careful as contestants fought over places on the moving Black Tortoise Stakes.
• Two combatants vanished during a fight, and more contestants disappeared soon afterward, leaving those who remained afraid to challenge anyone.
• Ma Luo accused a powerful elder of interfering, then he and the disciples around him vanished from the competition.
• After being ejected, Ma Luo told the Grand Cloud Sect Sect Master that the competition was unfair and that North Ridge Sacred Ground contestants had been spared.
• The Grand Cloud Sect Sect Master confronted the North Ridge Holy Lord as other sect elders joined the demand for an explanation.
• The North Ridge Holy Lord brought out the Heaven and Earth Mirror to address the accusations.

The North Ridge Holy Lord used the Heaven and Earth Mirror to investigate accusations that a North Ridge elder had deliberately eliminated the Grand Cloud Sect’s competitors. As suspicion spread to the Southern Spirit Sect, the mirror revealed a little snake plotting to collect even more Identity Tokens.

• The Grand Cloud Sect Master accused the North Ridge Holy Lord of helping an elder escape and covering up his actions, after discovering that every Grand Cloud Sect competitor had been eliminated.
• The North Ridge Holy Lord brought out the Heaven and Earth Mirror and used supreme-grade spirit stones to display the Black Tortoise Grand Formation.
• The sect leaders criticized the North Ridge Sacred Ground and questioned why so many of its disciples and Southern Spirit Sect disciples remained in the competition.
• The Black Snake Sect Master accused Yun Chong of defending the North Ridge Sacred Ground because the two sects were colluding.
• The mirror showed a little snake asking how many Identity Tokens its group had collected and announcing plans to attack another group.

Lan Yue, Yun Xi, and Yuan Shuo were revealed to have disguised themselves as red snakes and used fake Black Tortoise Stakes to steal Identity Tokens, disproving accusations that the North Ridge Sacred Ground had cheated. After the competition ended, Lan Yue secretly gave half her tokens to Yun Xi so she could preserve her chance to win the Nine Heavens Profound Spirit Art, leaving Yun Xi shocked when the token count was announced.

• Lan Yue, Yun Xi, and Yuan Shuo were exposed as the red snakes stealing Identity Tokens from competitors around three fake Black Tortoise Stakes.
• The North Ridge Holy Lord explained that the trio had slipped the fake stakes into the formation, and the other sect leaders recognized that the North Ridge Sacred Ground had not cheated.
• The Black Snake Sect's sect master and the Grand Cloud Sect's sect master complained that the trio would not be able to exploit loopholes in later rounds.
• After three days, the formation teleported out the surviving disciples, and Lan Yue and her companions emerged with more than three hundred Identity Tokens each.
• Lan Yue gave half her tokens to Yun Xi just before they were teleported out, and Yun Xi realized what she had done only after the steward announced their token count.

After Lan Yue helped Yun Xi claim first place in the Black Tortoise Grand Formation, she tried to keep a low profile and passed a Spatial Ring to Qing Zhu. In the next round, Qing Zhu won first place through the same token-stealing scheme, leaving the Southern Spirit Sect elders blamed for the unfair competition.

• Yun Chong urged Lan Yue to claim the ranking she deserved, but she was pleased to remain in the top ten and keep a low profile.
• Lan Yue secretly gave Qing Zhu a Spatial Ring and told her to use it before leaving the competition grounds.
• Disciples in the next round complained that disguised cultivators had stolen their Identity Tokens, and the elders learned that others had copied the Southern Spirit Sect's tactic.
• Qing Zhu took first place, Baili Xingzhou came second, and Nangong Ye placed in the top ten.
• The Grand Cloud Sect Master and Black Snake Sect Master accused the Southern Spirit Sect elders of plotting the scheme, while the elders insisted they had not invented it.

Lan Yue’s late-night gossip revealed that the Black Snake Sect’s Sect Master was teaching his concubine to seduce the Holy Spirit Sect’s Sect Master as part of a planned cooperation. The footage left both sects’ elders and disciples stunned, and the drunken Holy Spirit Sect’s Sect Master approached the concubine without realizing who she was or what was happening.

• Lan Yue began another gossip session, and disciples across the nearby peaks struggled between cultivating, sleeping, and listening.
• Lan Yue revealed that the Black Snake Sect’s Sect Master had sent his concubine to seduce the Holy Spirit Sect’s Sect Master and was personally coaching her.
• Lan Yue shared footage of the Black Snake Sect’s Sect Master demonstrating seductive poses to his startled concubine.
• Elders and disciples from several sects watched the scene and gaped as the Black Snake Sect’s Sect Master insisted the seduction succeed to secure cooperation with the Holy Spirit Sect.
• The drunken Holy Spirit Sect’s Sect Master mistook the concubine for a woman sent to please him and staggered toward her.

Lan Yue watched footage of the Holy Spirit Sect Master mistaking the Black Snake Sect Master for a beauty and lunging at him, while disciples from both sects reacted in shock. The system cut away the prohibited part, then urged Lan Yue to sleep so she would have more energy to enjoy gossip tomorrow.

• Lan Yue upgraded the footage, making the Black Snake Sect Master's furious expression clear to everyone watching.
• The Holy Spirit Sect Master recognized the Black Snake Sect Master as a sect master but still called him a beauty and tackled him.
• The footage went black for five seconds under the system's minor protection mode, then resumed with the Black Snake Sect Master kicking and chasing the Holy Spirit Sect Master.
• The disciples and elders wondered what the cut footage had concealed, while the system explained that minors were not allowed to watch it.
• The system urged Lan Yue to go to sleep, but Lan Yue asked to finish watching the remaining footage.

The Southern Spirit Sect disciples prepared for the Heart-Questioning Bridge after staying up all night following gossip, and Lan Yue shared her Enlightenment Milk Tea with them. As the elders opened the bridge, the North Ridge Holy Lord worried that the missing Holy Son had not learned that his daughter had appeared.

• The Second Elder suspected someone had sabotaged the exhausted disciples, but Luan Ning and Zou Wan explained that everyone had stayed up cultivating, while Lan Yue revealed she had watched the Black Snake Sect Master and Holy Spirit Sect Master all night.
• Lan Yue discovered that the Holy Lord of the North Ridge Sacred Ground had knocked out and taken away the two sect masters, then prepared to join the competition.
• Lan Yue shared her Enlightenment Milk Tea with the Southern Spirit Sect disciples and elders, and its spiritual energy cleared their muddled minds.
• Other competitors saw the Southern Spirit Sect drinking tea and began gulping spiritual tea themselves, while the Fifth Elder guarded his cup from the Sixth Elder.
• The North Ridge Holy Lord invited elders from every sect to open the Heart-Questioning Bridge together, then worried that the missing Holy Son had not received word that his daughter had appeared.