Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu contracted with Jiao Chen and learned why the merfolk lived on land as the continent’s seawater dwindled. After her group recovered, Yun Huanling unexpectedly advanced to Golden Core without a tribulation, and Su Jiu began explaining her meeting with Jiao Chen.

• Su Jiu and Jiao Chen sealed a contract, and he handed her the half-map of Black Dragon Prison.
• Jiao Chen told Su Jiu that merfolk had traded away the seawater for their ancestors to gain human legs, and that the sea continued to dwindle as merfolk were born.
• Su Jiu destroyed everything in Jiao Lin’s house before leaving, while Jiao Chen quietly wondered whether she would be Swallowing Heaven’s salvation.
• After three days, Qiao Zirong and Mo Qi had recovered from Dream-Reversal Powder, Yun Chao’s injuries had healed, and Yun Huanling had advanced to Golden Core without a tribulation.
• Su Jiu warned Yun Huanling that he would face tribulation lightning after leaving, then told the group she had met Jiao Chen and signed a contract with him.

Su Jiu and her companions prepared to enter Black Dragon Prison, where they planned to rescue the Merfolk Princess and eventually kill the Black Dragon King with Jiao Chen’s help. After flying west for a month, they reached a small town on the way to the prison.

• Su Jiu explained that she had made a formation contract with Jiao Chen to help rescue someone from Black Dragon Prison in exchange for his help killing the Black Dragon King and reaching the Teleportation Array.
• Su Jiu showed the group the incomplete map of Black Dragon Prison, and Yun Huanling identified its marked levels, traps, formations, and possible Prison Wardens.
• The five companions left Merfolk Village and flew west, discussing the prosperous Merfolk Kingdom and the danger of advancing their cultivation in this world.
• Su Jiu warned that anything they tried to bring into the Azure Realm could face Tribulation Lightning, particularly Yun Huanling because he had reached Core Formation.
• After flying for a month and encountering no danger, the group came upon a small town.

Su Jiu and her companions entered a strange border town inhabited by transformed black snakes and discovered that its people used merfolk protective scales as currency. The stallholder revealed that a Merfolk Village lay nearby, leaving Su Jiu to confront evidence that the Black Dragon Nation preyed on merfolk.

• Su Jiu sensed that the townspeople were transformed black snakes and warned her companions that they had entered the Black Dragon King's territory.
• Mo Qi stopped at a stall where Su Jiu recognized several kinds of pills scavenged from human corpses discarded by Black Dragon Prison.
• The stallholder explained that the Black Dragon Nation used merfolk scales as currency rather than spirit stones.
• The stallholder urged Su Jiu and her companions to hunt merfolk and sell them for scales, confirming the Merfolk King's warning that the Black Dragon Nation ate his people.
• Su Jiu learned that the town stood on the border between the Black Dragon Nation and the Merfolk Kingdom, with a Merfolk Village nearby.

Su Jiu rescued a half-snake, half-Merfolk boy from a mob in town, then confronted him after realizing he had deliberately staged the beating. The boy admitted he had two Innate Arts and asked whether Su Jiu’s eyes had a special Innate Art too.

• Su Jiu and Mo Qi refused to buy pills made from the Merfolk Tribe’s heart-guard scales.
• Su Jiu and her companions found townspeople watching children beat a half-snake, half-Merfolk boy and heard that the town considered him an ill omen.
• Su Jiu rescued the boy with Frost-Cold Purple Ultimate and flew out of town with her companions.
• Su Jiu told the boy to leave them, then accused him of deliberately getting them to rescue him.
• The boy stopped pretending to cry, confirmed he had two Innate Arts, and asked whether Su Jiu’s eyes had a special Innate Art.

Su Jiu and the others discovered that the child who had drawn their attention was Ji Jue, a cultivator who had possessed the body of a stillborn child. Ji Jue explained that he had died in the Black Dragon Prison after being deceived by Jiao Chen, and revealed that he wanted to return there with Su Jiu’s group for his own reasons.

• Su Jiu recognized that the boy’s calmness and awareness were inconsistent with his apparent age, and identified him as someone who had used Soul Possession.
• Ji Jue introduced himself as a member of the Soulguiding Sect and said he had possessed a stillborn child rather than taking over a living person.
• Ji Jue recounted how he trusted Jiao Chen’s offer to help rescue his daughter and lead him to the Teleportation Array, only to die in the Black Dragon Prison.
• Yun Huanling retold how Su Jiu and the others exposed Jiao Chen’s scheme and uncovered the mystery of the Merfolk Village, while exaggerating his own role.
• Su Jiu asked why Ji Jue had stopped them from going to the Black Dragon Prison, and Ji Jue admitted that he wanted to go there with them again, though not to rescue a princess.

Ji Jue revealed that time passed ten times faster in Swallowing Heaven than in the Azure Realm and explained that Black Dragon Prison’s legendary Seventh Layer might hold a way out. Su Jiu’s group set out to help the Merfolk King, but Ji Jue warned them that the formation beneath the Black Dragon King’s throne was damaged.

• Su Jiu learned from Ji Jue that he had entered Swallowing Heaven ten years earlier, which was only one year earlier in the Azure Realm.
• Ji Jue said guards had called the Seventh Layer of Black Dragon Prison a legendary passage to the outside world, though even the Black Dragon King could not reach it.
• Ji Jue explained that Black Dragon Prison predated the Black Dragon King and had been built as an imitation of the Heaven-Connecting Tower.
• Ji Jue said he could leave his body behind and enter the Azure Realm as a soul, while Su Jiu identified him as a soul cultivator.
• Su Jiu decided to help the Merfolk King rescue the princess rather than rely solely on Black Dragon Prison.
• Ji Jue warned Su Jiu that the formation beneath the Black Dragon King’s throne was damaged and could not take them out of Swallowing Heaven.

Su Jiu and her companions reached Black Dragon Prison with Ji Jue, who warned them that the map was unreliable and the guards grew stronger on higher floors. At the prison door, Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong began working together to release the talisman seal.

• Ji Jue urged the group to head for Black Dragon Prison, and Su Jiu agreed to bring him along as their scout.
• Ji Jue led the group through the forest and warned them that the prison guards were poisonous black Jiao Serpents.
• Su Jiu swiftly killed the two guards at the prison entrance before they could call for reinforcements.
• Ji Jue told the group that parts of the Merfolk King's map were false and explained that the Merfolk King had likely left the errors in place deliberately.
• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong examined the talisman sealing the prison door and combined their spiritual qi to activate its runes.

Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong spent seven days breaking the talisman on the Black Dragon Prison’s door, revealing it was a Recruitment Talisman that had once summoned Black Jiao Serpent Soldiers. Before entering the formidable barrier inside, Su Jiu sent Yun Huanling, Yun Chao, and Mo Qi away with escape talismans, then vanished inside with Qiao Zirong and Ji Jue, leaving the others locked outside.

• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong worked for seven days until the talisman came off the stone door.
• Su Jiu explained that the talisman had summoned Black Jiao Serpent Soldiers when Ji Jue opened the door ten years earlier.
• After noticing a formidable barrier beyond the doorway, Su Jiu told Yun Huanling, Yun Chao, and Mo Qi to wait outside and gave them escape instructions and talismans.
• Su Jiu transferred the contract mark to Yun Huanling, then vanished into the Black Dragon Prison with Qiao Zirong and Ji Jue.
• The door closed behind them, trapping Yun Huanling, Yun Chao, and Mo Qi outside, and Mo Qi’s eyes flashed red.

Su Jiu, Qiao Zirong, and Ji Jue entered the tower and made their way through its first two floors as Su Jiu grew increasingly suspicious of Ji Jue. On the third floor, they faced an unfinished board-game formation with no apparent winning move.

• Qiao Zirong used a Tracking Teleportation Talisman to follow Su Jiu, who explained the danger of entering a place modeled on the Heaven-Connecting Tower.
• Ji Jue described the first floor's maze, then led Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong through it while Su Jiu privately warned Qiao Zirong not to trust everything he said.
• The trio reached the second floor, where Ji Jue spent nearly two days unraveling an overlapping formation as Su Jiu watched.
• On the third floor, Ji Jue explained that his former group had reached a board-game formation and that their Go expert had made a fatal wrong move.
• Ji Jue moved stones on the board, revealing an unfinished game in which every apparent move led to a dead end.

Su Jiu exposed Ji Jue as an impostor who had manipulated the Black Dragon Prison, and fought him after his resentful qi and hidden identity were revealed. Ji Jue seized Qiao Zirong as a hostage and changed the third floor into an empty, isolated space, then asked Su Jiu when she had realized the truth.

• Ji Jue explained that wrong moves on the enormous Go board created spike-filled pits that suppressed spiritual qi and killed players.
• Su Jiu noticed Ji Jue’s nervousness, questioned his waist pouch, and pointed out that the prison’s layout did not match the map or contain any prisoners.
• Su Jiu revealed that she was a formation master and recognized resentful qi around Ji Jue, whose overlapping voices admitted they wanted her as a sacrifice.
• Su Jiu attacked Ji Jue with the Frost-Cold Purple Ultimate while Qiao Zirong joined the fight with his bonded sword.
• Ji Jue grabbed Qiao Zirong by the neck and demanded to know when Su Jiu had seen through him.
• Ji Jue used a spirit herb to transform the third floor into an empty space without the chessboard or stairs.

Su Jiu confronted Ji Jue and exposed his plan to reach the Seventh Layer of Black Dragon Prison by sacrificing more souls, while their companions struggled outside to understand her sacrifice and Mo Qi’s growing heart demon. The chapter left Su Jiu still fighting Ji Jue as Mo Qi recognized that the demonic cultivator’s influence had awakened the darkness within her.

• Su Jiu revealed that she had distrusted Ji Jue from his first lie and deduced that he sought a way to remove the resentful qi from his body.
• Ji Jue admitted that he wanted sacrifices to help him reach the seventh layer, released Qiao Zirong, and attacked Su Jiu.
• Mo Qi accused Su Jiu of selfishness, then collapsed as Yun Huanling and Yun Chao worried over her.
• Yun Huanling told Yun Chao that Su Jiu had altered their contract formation so he could escape with Yun Chao and seek the Merfolk King if she failed to return.
• Mo Qi woke and realized that her heart demon had begun growing after her encounter with a demonic cultivator.

Mo Qi realized Su Jiu had saved her life and was consumed by shame over her suspicions, while Su Jiu trapped Ji Jue and learned he planned to seek immortality with the Everlasting Flower on the Black Dragon Prison’s seventh floor. Su Jiu questioned the source of that story and the old man’s role in creating the illusion realm.

• Mo Qi woke, learned Su Jiu had left Yun Huanling the formation contract to protect them, and regretted doubting her.
• Su Jiu fought Ji Jue for six hours and discovered that the souls he had devoured replenished one another’s soul power.
• Su Jiu used the demonic soul inside Ji Jue to freeze him with Thousand-Mile Ice Seal, allowing an old man’s soul to escape his control.
• Su Jiu trapped the old man in an ice cage, and he revealed that Ji Jue intended to wish for immortality at the Everlasting Flower on the seventh floor.
• Su Jiu asked the old man where he had learned the flower could grant wishes and why he had created an illusion realm to lead them up the tower.

Su Jiu learned how Ji Jue had killed his companions, absorbed their souls, and returned to Black Dragon Prison seeking the Everlasting Flower. She exposed his plan to use the group and rejected his belief that the flower could grant him immortality.

• Su Jiu crushed the old heretical cultivator in his ice prison and questioned a female cultivator's soul instead.
• The soul explained that a disaster on the fourth level filled the Sacrificial Altar with blood, after which Ji Jue killed the survivors and fused their souls with his.
• The soul revealed that Ji Jue learned of the Everlasting Flower from the Merfolk King, possessed a dead boy, and waited in town for cultivators to help him enter Black Dragon Prison.
• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong deduced that Ji Jue had used an illusion to deceive them and intended to lead them toward the spike-filled black hole.
• Ji Jue defended his pursuit of immortality, but Su Jiu declared she would become immortal through her own cultivation without the Everlasting Flower.

Su Jiu killed Ji Jue with Qiao Zirong’s help, then refused to take the remaining souls to the Seventh Level. The souls discovered that the Sacrificial Altar required nine of them and sealed the Fourth Level until only one remained.

• Su Jiu prepared to kill Ji Jue, but Qiao Zirong struck first and captured his soul with his Soul-Fusing Mark, which blocked Ji Jue’s master’s Divine Sense.
• Su Jiu told the remaining souls she would not take them to the Seventh Level, then left for the Fifth Level with Qiao Zirong.
• The souls realized the Sacrificial Altar could take them to the Seventh Level and found its inscription now required nine souls, leaving only one of the ten to advance.
• The souls discovered the Fourth Level was sealed, and a Black Hole on the stairs to the Fifth Level opened with a soul-shredding hurricane, pulling in two souls.

Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong entered the Fifth Level’s deadly passage, where she identified the route as part of a Nine-Bend Killing Array. After triggering and surviving its first traps, they continued deeper into Black Dragon Prison.

• Su Jiu reasoned that only one of the three passages led to survival and chose the middle entrance, with Qiao Zirong following her.
• The entrance sealed behind them, and Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong discovered that the passage’s door, walls, and floor were made of spirit-blocking stone.
• Su Jiu stopped Qiao Zirong from touching a protruding boulder and deduced that the passage was likely the Nine-Bend Killing Array’s path to life.
• Su Jiu tested Qiao Zirong’s physical strength, then had them throw Spirit Stones at two boulders at the same time.
• The boulders triggered a hidden pit and a volley of arrows; Su Jiu pulled Qiao Zirong clear, and they dodged the arrows until the trap ran out.

Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong escaped a layered sandstorm formation in Black Dragon Prison and entered a passage of long-imprisoned Merfolk and Jiao Snake Tribe members. A Merfolk Imperial Clan prisoner recognized that Su Jiu knew Jiao Chen and urgently asked how his son was.

• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong entered a desert illusion and began calculating the formation’s eye, but Qiao Zirong struck a false eye and triggered a deadly sandstorm.
• Su Jiu discovered a concealed illusion realm and spent seven days deciphering the Concealment Array while she and Qiao Zirong moved between temporary refuges.
• On the fifteenth day, Su Jiu found the true formation eye and used Frost-Cold Purple Ultimate's Sword Qi to shatter the formation.
• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong entered a prison passage where a merfolk explained that many prisoners had killed themselves after enduring thousands of years in confinement.
• A Merfolk Imperial Clan prisoner recognized Jiao Chen’s name and anxiously asked Su Jiu how his son was doing.

Su Jiu confirmed that the Merfolk Princess was imprisoned on the sixth level and learned that Jiao Chen’s long-missing father was held on the fifth. After refusing to free the powerful prisoners, Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong headed down to the sixth level to rescue the princess.

• Su Jiu told Jiao Chen’s father that she planned to rescue his granddaughter, who was imprisoned on the sixth level.
• Su Jiu explained that she had made a deal with Jiao Chen to rescue his daughter in exchange for his help killing the Black Dragon King.
• Jiao Chen’s father revealed that a formation beneath the Black Dragon King’s Throne led to the outside world.
• Jiao Chen’s father and other prisoners asked Su Jiu to free them, but she refused because she could not undo their chains and did not trust them.
• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong left the fifth level and began descending the stairs to the sixth.

Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong entered a shifting space formation on the sixth floor, hoping to reach the princess and escape the Black Dragon Prison. They discovered the maze distorted their perception and changed roughly every half hour, and continued through it together.

• Su Jiu warned Qiao Zirong that she could not guarantee his safety in the space formation, but he chose to enter with her.
• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong were transported into the maze, where Su Jiu discovered that it made her believe she was flying upward while Qiao Zirong saw her standing still.
• The maze shifted violently, changing its walls and passages, and Su Jiu prioritized staying beside Qiao Zirong so they would not be separated.
• Su Jiu noticed that the maze had no additional formations layered into it and kept navigating by calculation.
• When the maze shook again, Su Jiu pulled Qiao Zirong away from a rising wall and said the changes occurred every half hour.

Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong escaped a spatial maze that grew more complex over time by choosing a route quickly and reaching the exit before it shifted again. On the sixth level of Black Dragon Prison, they found a beautiful golden-haired girl asleep in the only occupied cell.

• Su Jiu used her divine sense to narrow the maze’s many branches to two routes, then asked Qiao Zirong to choose left or right without thinking.
• Qiao Zirong chose left, and Su Jiu led him through the maze while explaining that its spirit-blocking stone walls could not be broken through.
• As the maze neared its next spatial shift, Su Jiu grabbed Qiao Zirong’s wrist and hurried them through the exit just in time.
• The maze grew more complex behind them, then mostly vanished and returned to its original state after they escaped.
• Su Jiu and Qiao Zirong reached the sunlit sixth level of Black Dragon Prison and found a golden-haired girl sleeping in its sole occupied cell.

Su Jiu confronted the Black Dragon King in the Black Dragon Prison and learned that he had posed as the pill peddler who once watched her. Meanwhile, Jiao Chen discovered the Black Dragon King's deception and rushed into the prison to rescue Jiao Yue.

• Su Jiu woke Jiao Yue, who warned her to leave and recognized that she had come from the outside world.
• The Black Dragon King appeared, revealed that he had manipulated the trial on the fourth level, and crushed the surviving soul.
• The Black Dragon King changed into the pill peddler and admitted that he had waited a year for Su Jiu before she identified him as the Black Dragon King.
• Jiao Chen found a Jade Slip in the Black Dragon King's palace, realized he had sent Su Jiu into danger, and hurried to the prison.
• Jiao Chen found Yun Huanling and Yun Chao outside the prison, broke through Su Jiu's sealing talisman, and entered with them.