Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu and Yun Chao learned that a third of the Heavenly Secret Sect’s Golden Core disciples were dead and that demonic cultivators were using the Thousand-Soul Blood-Congealing Formation across the Spiritflight Continent. The Sect Leader explained the sect’s investigation, while Su Jiu connected the danger to the disappearance of three Azure Tide Sect disciples and the strange phenomenon at Twinleaf Town.

• The Sect Leader received a blood-written message and hurried to the Soul-Quelling Hall, where Yun Chao discovered that a third of the Golden Core disciples’ Soul Lamps had gone out.
• Yun Chao offered to investigate, and Su Jiu told the Sect Leader that three Azure Tide Sect disciples had also disappeared on the Spiritflight Continent.
• The Sect Leader traced the trouble back over a decade, recounting how the Third Elder found a city filled with demonic cultivators and a nearby sect slaughtered.
• The Sect Leader revealed that the cities destroyed overnight were linked to the Thousand-Soul Blood-Congealing Formation, which consumed souls to create a blood-colored pearl.
• Yun Huanling explained that the demonic cultivators likely destroyed the formation and altar to prevent others from deciphering it, and Su Jiu suspected the phenomenon at Twinleaf Town was connected.

Su Jiu and the others investigated strange disappearances in Flowing Radiance Sword Sect territory and followed a mysterious villager home after observing her nighttime prayers. There, Su Jiu noticed the villager’s sick daughter react strangely when her mother mentioned a jade given by an Old Immortal.

• Yun Chao showed the group a map marking places where disciples had died or vanished, and planned to investigate nearby villages first.
• The four rested in a dilapidated temple, concealed themselves, and watched an elderly woman named San Niang pray for her ailing daughter.
• Su Jiu urged the others to follow San Niang back to her village, where they saw her exhausted daughter confront her about seeking help from an Old Immortal.
• San Niang said the Old Immortal’s medicine worked and that the jade he had left her daughter had helped for four years, and Su Jiu noticed the girl’s brief, unnatural expression.

Su Jiu concluded that the village girl had an unusually powerful soul and suspected the missing immortal was connected to her weakness. She sent Yun Huanling to pose as a fortune-teller to investigate, then contacted Xia Jue, who was on a mission on the Shangyin Continent.

• Su Jiu told Yun Huanling and Yun Chao that the girl's soul was nearly as powerful as a cultivator's, though she had no spiritual qi.
• Su Jiu decided they should investigate without resuming their cultivator identities and ordered Yun Huanling to pose as a fortune-teller.
• Yun Huanling reluctantly agreed after Su Jiu drew her sword, and the next day he went out disguised as a charlatan with Su Jiu as his attendant.
• Su Jiu left Qiao Zirong and Yun Chao behind, and Yun Chao warned Qiao Zirong not to harm Su Jiu or the others.
• Su Jiu activated the Sound-Mixing Bell and asked Xia Jue what he was doing; he said he was carrying out a mission on the Shangyin Continent.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling visited A-Yu to investigate her illness and retrieve a jade pendant connected to their grandmaster. When Su Jiu confronted A-Yu over the pendant, it spoke and struck Su Jiu unconscious, leaving both her and A-Yu collapsed.

• Su Jiu asked Xia Jue about the Skyglaze Stone, and he explained its connection to a missing Mystic Dharma Immortal Sect disciple and a murder for treasure.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling met a woman in Bright Creek Village who recognized the clothes worn by Su Jiu’s grandmaster and said he had promised to help her daughter.
• The woman led them to A-Yu, who hid a dark green jade pendant and denied that she still had their grandmaster’s magic treasure.
• Yun Huanling warned A-Yu that she would not live past eighteen without treatment, but she refused their help and Su Jiu demanded the pendant.
• A-Yu tried to call for help, but the jade pendant spoke to Su Jiu, who then lost consciousness as A-Yu fainted too.

Yun Huanling discovered that A-Yu's pendant was Soul-Draining Jade, while Su Jiu confronted the soul hiding inside it in her sea of consciousness. The soul explained that she had tried to protect A-Yu from the jade's draining, and Su Jiu learned why the pendant had changed owners and why its former owner had not found them.

• Yun Huanling immobilized the fleeing woman, checked Su Jiu, and lifted A-Yu's pendant without touching it after recognizing it as Soul-Draining Jade.
• Su Jiu watched the intruding divine sense search her vast sea of consciousness and learned from the flower that the intruder could not see it.
• Su Jiu attacked the intruding soul and demanded that she leave, then accused her of draining A-Yu's soul through the pendant.
• The soul explained that the jade had drained A-Yu to nourish its former owner, but she had tried to stop it after becoming trapped inside the jade.
• The soul told Su Jiu that she had warned A-Yu to abandon the pendant, and asked Su Jiu to take it away from her.
• The soul explained that the former owner had suffered backlash when the jade's contract changed and had lost track of them after A-Yu and her mother fled Dragon Shadow City.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling investigated the Soul-Draining Jade and its connection to Dragon Shadow City, while A-Yu mistook Yun Huanling for a disciple of the heretical cultivator who had given her the jade. After Yin Yin cleared up the misunderstanding, A-Yu’s description of the cultivator’s robes suggested that a Heavenly Secret Sect disciple might be involved.

• Su Jiu recalled that Dragon Shadow City was marked on Yun Chao’s map and was the only city in the Flowing Radiance Sword Sect’s territory ravaged by the Thousand Spirit Blood-Coagulating Formation.
• Su Jiu questioned Yin Yin about her death, and Yin Yin said her soul had left her body while she meditated, surrounded by a warm light.
• A-Yu woke and tried to take the Soul-Draining Jade from Yun Huanling, then accused him of being connected to the heretical cultivator who had left it with her.
• Yun Huanling realized Yin Yin was likely a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator, but A-Yu refused to believe his claim that he did not know the heretical cultivator.
• Su Jiu woke, Yin Yin returned to the jade pendant, and she told A-Yu that she had been mistaken about Yun Huanling.
• A-Yu said the heretical cultivator’s robe had clouds embroidered at the bottom, unlike Yun Huanling’s robe with cranes, and Yun Huanling grew angry at the possibility that a Heavenly Secret Sect disciple was involved.

Su Jiu learned that A-Yu’s declining health came from a Soul-Devouring Pill that had consumed her lifespan, leaving her only two years to live. Yin Yin offered to sacrifice her soul to save A-Yu, but Su Jiu refused to help; Yun Huanling then asked for the birth details of Yin Yin and A-Yu, and Yin Yin recognized Su Jiu as Chu Mojin’s disciple.

• Yun Huanling reported the suspicious Inner Gate Disciple to the Heavenly Secret Sect while Su Jiu spoke with Yin Yin.
• A-Yu explained that the Heretical Cultivator had given her medicine that improved her health before she ran out of it.
• Su Jiu concluded that the medicine was likely a Soul-Devouring Pill and told Yin Yin that A-Yu would probably live only until eighteen.
• Yin Yin proposed using her own soul to save A-Yu, but Su Jiu refused to assist with the sacrifice.
• Yun Huanling asked for Yin Yin’s and A-Yu’s birth details, and Yin Yin recognized Su Jiu’s Azure Tide Sect token as identifying her as Chu Mojin’s disciple.

Yun Huanling divined that Yin Yin and A-Yu had been twin sisters in a previous life, bound by a contract that tied their souls together. He offered them a way to save A-Yu by binding a divine soul contract, and Yin Yin and A-Yu completed it, joining their fates.

• Yun Huanling used his Compass to discover that Yin Yin and A-Yu had been blood sisters, likely twins, in their previous lives and that A-Yu had been a general.
• Yun Huanling explained that A-Yu had delayed reincarnation to meet Yin Yin again and had likely sacrificed her soul to bind their souls across lifetimes.
• Yin Yin asked Su Jiu and Yun Huanling to exchange souls with A-Yu, but Su Jiu refused because Yin Yin would be taking the price of A-Yu's contract upon herself.
• A-Yu woke and happily saw Yin Yin in visible form, while her mother wept after learning that A-Yu's life was in danger.
• Yun Huanling proposed a divine soul contract that would let Yin Yin become a ghost cultivator and replenish A-Yu's soul, though they would die together when A-Yu's mortal lifespan ended.
• Yin Yin and A-Yu accepted the contract, and their souls joined in a formation that gave them a telepathic connection.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling learned more about the clues connecting their investigation to Dragon Shadow City, then discovered Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong had been abducted. Su Jiu identified the likely direction of the kidnappers, while Yun Huanling recovered from a dangerous divination before they set out after them.

• Yinyin told Su Jiu she had seen Flowing Radiance Sword Sect and Azure Tide Sect disciples in Dragon Shadow City five years earlier, and A-Yu described the scarred man who had given her medicine and a Jade Pendant.
• Su Jiu secretly advised Yinyin to go to the Yin River Continent to become a ghost cultivator, and A-Yu's mother agreed that A-Yu should leave with her.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling reached the meeting place and found Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong missing, with Yun Chao's sword tassel and a pool of blood left behind.
• Yun Huanling performed a costly divination despite Su Jiu's warning, while Su Jiu examined the scene and found misleading tracks and faint signs pointing southeast.
• After Yun Huanling finished his divination, Su Jiu told him to rest for four hours and explained that blood on trees and sword marks had revealed the kidnappers' direction.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling traced Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong to Flowing Moon City, where their search was disrupted and they met another cultivator whose junior brother had vanished. Su Jiu planned to return to the suspicious crossroads that night, but on the way to an inn they encountered an old acquaintance.

• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling followed the Formation Disk to Flowing Moon City, where Demonic Cultivators and Spirit Cultivators mingled without open conflict.
• Yun Huanling's Compass was interfered with at a crossroads, and Su Jiu suspected they had been discovered.
• Shu Wugui of the Soul Controlling Sect told Su Jiu and Yun Huanling that his junior brother had disappeared and that his scent trail ended at the crossroads.
• Su Jiu questioned Shu Wugui, then decided to return to the crossroads that night to investigate.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling set out to find an inn but encountered one of Su Jiu's old acquaintances.

Su Jiu, Qin Ming, and Yun Huanling met Yu Jin in Flowing Moon City and learned that each of them had come searching for a missing person. Yu Jin proposed that they work together, believing the missing people had all been taken to the same place.

• Su Jiu reunited with Qin Ming and warned him and Yun Huanling that someone with concealed golden core cultivation was listening outside the teahouse.
• Yu Jin admitted that he had sent A Bao to eavesdrop and introduced himself to Su Jiu, Qin Ming, and Yun Huanling.
• Su Jiu and Qin Ming revealed that they were searching for close friends, while Yu Jin said his little nephew had disappeared inside Flowing Moon City.
• Qin Ming explained that Liu Zhiyan's Soul Tablet had led him to the city, but divination could not pinpoint his location.
• Yu Jin offered to join their search, saying many people in Flowing Moon City were looking for missing people and that he had gathered the most information.

Su Jiu and Yu Jin exchanged clues about the disappearances and suspected the missing cultivators might be hidden in Flowing Moon City's Ghost Market. As the group entered the market, Su Jiu questioned Yu Jin about strange incidents unrelated to demonic cultivators, and he admitted there was one.

• Yu Jin told Su Jiu that the disappeared people were cultivators with strong spirit roots, while Su Jiu explained that the abductor had left a trace of spiritual qi rather than demonic qi.
• Yu Jin said the City Lord was not involved and suspected Flowing Moon City might be a smokescreen, but Su Jiu thought the missing people could still be hidden within the city.
• Su Jiu suggested investigating the Ghost Market, and Yu Jin, Yun Huanling, and Qin Ming agreed to go with her that night.
• Su Jiu led the group to the Ghost Market entrance as numerous demonic cultivators headed there in an organized fashion.
• Su Jiu asked Yu Jin whether strange incidents unrelated to demonic cultivators had occurred, and he confirmed that one had.

Su Jiu learned about the Zheng Household’s tangled history and an unexplained case of a child gaining spirit roots, then discovered that a Space Teleportation Array was helping the kidnappers evade pursuit. She decided to wait at its exit for them to bring their captives through.

• Yu Jin explained that the Zheng Household’s head had many concubines, and one of them secretly sent his principal wife’s son to a branch on the Azure Mist Continent.
• Yu Jin said the son had fathered more than thirty children without any spirit roots and described an eleven-year-old grandson whose spirit roots appeared after an initial test found none.
• Su Jiu suspected human interference behind the Zheng Household’s strange events and wondered whether an item supposedly disposed of ten thousand years earlier was involved.
• At the Ghost Market entrance, Su Jiu spotted a Space Teleportation Array and deduced that the kidnappers used a portable array at the crossroads to transport their captives.
• Su Jiu told Yu Jin, Yun Huanling, and Qin Ming not to enter the Ghost Market yet and chose to wait at the array’s exit for the kidnappers.

Su Jiu and her companions rescued Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong from a trafficking operation at Flowing Moon City's Ghost Market without breaking the city's no-fighting rules. After returning to the inn, Su Jiu revealed that she had placed a Tracking Talisman on the tall Golden Core cultivator, leaving the group able to pursue the operation's hidden backer.

• Su Jiu and her companions hid near the Ghost Market and waited until a tall Golden Core cultivator summoned two men carrying sacks.
• The two men delivered the sacks, and Su Jiu's group surrounded them before they could enter the Ghost Market.
• Su Jiu used an Ice Cone to open one sack, seized the other, and rescued Qiao Zirong and Yun Chao while Yu Jin argued that she had not broken city rules.
• The tall man nearly retaliated but backed down when Su Jiu suggested his master might have to retrieve him from prison.
• At the inn, Su Jiu checked Qiao Zirong, gave him pills, and told Yu Jin she had placed a Tracking Talisman on the tall man.

After rescuing Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong from the Ghost Market, Su Jiu and her companions suspected people were being abducted for their spirit roots. The operation’s leaders ordered the Flowing Moon City market abandoned, while Zheng Seventeen became suspicious of a captive with a single spirit root.

• A masked leader learned that Chen Ping had captured Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong, and ordered the Flowing Moon City route abandoned to avoid the major sects’ attention.
• Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong woke and described being knocked unconscious; Qiao Zirong recalled a scar on his attacker’s hand.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling suspected the captors were targeting spirit roots, but Su Jiu deferred explaining until after their return to the Ghost Market.
• Su Jiu, Qin Ming, and Yu Jin planned to investigate the Ghost Market while Yun Huanling stayed behind to care for Yun Chao and Qiao Zirong.
• At the Ghost Market, Zheng Seventeen told Chen Ping to abandon the captives, and Chen Ping protested that more than twenty people remained in the warehouse.
• Zheng Seventeen suspected that the captive with a single spirit root had an unusual background.

Su Jiu confronted Chen Ping and Zheng Seventeen at their hideout and uncovered Spirit-Draining Stones containing absorbed spirit roots. After using the Sound-Mixing Bell to question them, she learned their master had supplied the stones, but the source remained unknown.

• Chen Ping told Zheng Seventeen that Yu Xiaoyu, the Yu Household’s great-grandchild, was among their captives and urged him not to report the kidnapping.
• Zheng Seventeen spotted a Tracking Talisman rune on Chen Ping, and Chen Ping realized the youngsters had used Void Talisman Drawing to mark him.
• Su Jiu, Yu Jin, and Qin Ming arrived at the hideout as Chen Ping and Zheng Seventeen prepared to flee.
• Su Jiu revealed a bottle of Spirit-Draining Stones and demanded to know where they came from and who their master was.
• Su Jiu used the Sound-Mixing Bell to make the men answer, and they said their master had given them the stones.

Su Jiu and her companions discovered a hidden prison beneath the shop and freed the captive cultivators, including Liu Zhiyan. Su Jiu revealed that she could return extracted Spirit Roots, giving hope to the prisoners who had lost theirs.

• A man watched Su Jiu through a water mirror and saw her detect the surveillance before the person he observed exploded under a restriction.
• Su Jiu questioned Zheng Seventeen, who revealed a hidden passage and disabled the formation concealing the underground prison.
• Yu Jin and Qin Ming found the prisoners, and Qin Ming recognized Liu Zhiyan in the second cage.
• Yu Jin learned that Yu Xiaoyu was held in a separate cell and rushed to find him while Qin Ming freed the other captives from their cages and Spirit-Locking Chains.
• Su Jiu asked the prisoners in the first cage about their former Spirit Roots and produced the three-colored roots a girl described, telling her they could be returned to her Dantian.

Su Jiu returned Spirit Roots to their owners and explained how they could recover, but one man discovered his Spirit Root was missing. The last two Spirit-Draining Stones went to Lu Chuchu and Lu Shuangshuang, whose bitter rivalry erupted in front of everyone.

• Su Jiu returned Spirit Roots to several cultivators and explained that they would be weak while their Spirit Roots recovered.
• A man learned that his Spirit Root was not among the remaining stones and collapsed in despair, fearing it had been sold and implanted in someone else.
• Lu Chuchu introduced herself and Lu Shuangshuang as members of the Lu Household and thanked Su Jiu and Qin Ming for their help.
• Lu Chuchu took the stone containing two Spirit Roots, but Lu Shuangshuang snatched it and accused her sister of stealing everything from her.
• Lu Shuangshuang denounced Lu Chuchu and insulted the cultivators who criticized her, while Lu Chuchu tried to calm her down.

Su Jiu exposed how spirit-draining stones worked and uncovered evidence that the Zheng Household was linked to the spirit-root trafficking shop. She realized the booklet and other clues were not enough to prove the household’s guilt, so she still needed more evidence.

• Su Jiu explained that a stolen spirit root would wither and drain its holder’s cultivation, prompting Lu Chuchu to retrieve the stone while Lu Shuangshuang refused to help her.
• Su Jiu told Qin Ming she suspected the Zheng Household was connected to the shop because of a child who gained a spirit root a year after testing without one.
• Su Jiu showed Qin Ming an emblem on Zheng Seventeen’s belongings that matched a lineage crest.
• Su Jiu found a booklet recording nearly a hundred extracted and sold spirit roots, including an unnamed sale from five years earlier, and identified Zheng Seventeen as its recorder.
• Su Jiu concluded the evidence could be blamed on Zheng Seventeen and his dead accomplice, so she decided she needed more proof against the Zheng Household.

Yu Jin rescued Yu Xiaoyu from the Zheng Household’s cage and discovered the boy’s spirit root was still intact. Zheng Li confronted his mother over her role in the kidnapping and warned her to stop causing trouble, leaving their relationship exposed as one built on mutual use.

• Yu Jin found the injured Yu Xiaoyu, broke his cage, and removed the Spirit-Locking Chain after confirming his spiritual qi still circulated normally.
• Zheng Li warned his kneeling subordinates not to leave evidence of their work and predicted trouble for the Zheng Household.
• Zheng Li’s mother confronted him, and he realized she had ordered Yu Xiaoyu’s capture to steal his wind spirit root for her own grandson.
• Zheng Li told his mother to take responsibility for the consequences of her schemes and threatened her if she caused further trouble.
• Zheng Li’s mother recognized that they had become less like mother and son and more like people using each other.