Chapter Summaries

After the group left the Ghost Market, Su Jiu returned to the inn while her companions headed home, and she and Yu Jin agreed to meet in Jade Sun City in two months to discuss the Spirit-Draining Stone incident. On the journey, Lu Chuchu tried to attach herself to Yu Jin, provoking a bitter argument with her sister Lu Shuangshuang and making Yu Jin endure her attention until they parted.

• Qin Ming took Liu Zhiyan back to the Azure Mist Continent, Yu Jin took Yu Xiaoyu to the Yu Household, and Yu Jin agreed to meet Su Jiu in Jade Sun City two months later.
• Lu Chuchu interrupted Su Jiu and Yu Jin's discussion of the Zheng Household and offered to help investigate, insisting Yu Jin would protect her if danger arose.
• Lu Shuangshuang rebuked Lu Chuchu and threatened to break off her engagement to Shu Li, while one of the rescued people watched her thoughtfully.
• Lu Chuchu reflected that her arranged marriage to a powerless concubine-born son was unacceptable and decided that becoming Yu Jin's concubine would be preferable.
• Lu Chuchu repeatedly interrupted the journey to focus on Yu Jin, and the increasingly impatient Yu Jin sent Su Jiu a private message agreeing to discuss matters in Jade Sun City.

Su Jiu broke through to the late Golden Core Stage after a month of suppressing her cultivation, gaining greater control over her abilities while her dantian remained unsettled. Meanwhile, Shu Wugui and Shu Yi discussed how to oppose the Zheng Household, and Su Jiu’s flower showed no further growth.

• Su Jiu returned to the inn and shut herself in her room to break through, while Yun Huanling stood guard.
• Yun Chao and others noticed the immense spiritual qi surging toward Su Jiu’s room.
• Shu Wugui persuaded Shu Yi to follow others who planned to make trouble for the Zheng Household, and dismissed concerns about Lu Chuchu.
• Su Jiu spent a month refining the volatile spiritual qi in her dantian and reached the late Golden Core Stage.
• Su Jiu discovered that her Qi Condensation into Form had improved and that she had cultivated the Jade Moisture Chapter to the third level.
• Su Jiu concluded that each newly opened petal on her face’s flower granted her a talent, but the flower had reached a bottleneck.

Su Jiu named the mysterious flower Little Gift, then stopped Lu Chuchu from provoking Lu Shuangshuang into exhausting herself after her spirit root was reattached. After learning she had been in seclusion for a month, Su Jiu set out for Jade Sun City with Yun Huanling and the others, but Lu Chuchu asked to join them and implied she had grown close to Yu Jin.

• Su Jiu named the half-open flower Little Gift after realizing her unusual abilities had emerged in this life alongside its blooming.
• Su Jiu bound Lu Shuangshuang with a Spirit-Locking Chain and reminded her not to use too much spiritual qi so soon after her spirit root was reattached.
• Su Jiu read messages from Yu Jin, her Azure Tide Sect friends, and Chu Mojin, then learned she had been in seclusion for a month.
• Su Jiu told Yun Huanling and the others they would leave for Jade Sun City immediately and explain the urgent matter on the way.
• Lu Chuchu asked to accompany Su Jiu's group, claiming she had been abducted and rescued by Yu Jin, while Yun Huanling challenged her account.

Su Jiu and her companions left Lu Chuchu behind and traveled to Jade Sun City to pursue evidence about the Ghost Market trade. They arrived to find the city prosperous and its pill prices astonishingly high.

• Yun Huanling, Yun Chao, and Qiao Zirong refused to take Lu Chuchu with them, while Shu Wugui decided to meet her and help her reach the Yu Household’s young master.
• Yun Huanling and Qiao Zirong argued over whether leaving Lu Chuchu behind was proper, and Yun Chao pointed out that Qiao Zirong had chosen not to carry her himself.
• Su Jiu explained the Ghost Market incident, and she and her companions discussed how the Zheng Household could deny responsibility and whether Yu Jin had found evidence.
• Su Jiu and the others traveled for a month without stopping in cities shared by Demonic and Dao Cultivators, then arrived in Jade Sun City.
• The companions were shocked by Jade Sun City’s prices for Spirit-Gathering Pills and Hemostatic Pills, and an elderly cultivator defended the costs by comparing them with Blood-Coagulating Pills.

Su Jiu and her companions learned that Jade Sun City stayed independent through a powerful defensive formation and mechanisms, then discovered the Zheng Household was coercing local pill sellers. The chapter ended with Su Jiu confronting the Zheng Household servants who had bullied a pill-refining girl and her grandfather.

• Su Jiu noticed that pills in Jade Sun City were expensive and that Zheng Household servants were watching the sellers.
• Yun Chao explained that Jade Sun City was independent and protected by a powerful city-guarding formation, while Qiao Zirong said its mechanisms could destroy even Spirit Severing Stage cultivators.
• Su Jiu and her companions came across Zheng Household servants threatening a girl and her grandfather for selling pills privately.
• The Zheng Household leader demanded that the girl sell her pills to the household, but she refused because its prices did not cover her costs and its Pill Refining Masters could not leave.
• Su Jiu arrived, recognized the men as Zheng Household servants, and asked whether they belonged to the Zheng Household before righting the pill cauldron.

Su Jiu protected an injured grandfather and granddaughter from Zheng Household enforcers and learned how the Zheng Household controlled pill refining and sales in Jade Sun City. The old man planned to flee with his granddaughter, while Su Jiu remained focused on the Spirit-Draining Stone and her other responsibilities.

• Su Jiu wounded the Zheng Household leader with an Ice Spike, and he and his men left to fetch reinforcements.
• Yun Huanling and Qiao Zirong joined Su Jiu as the grandfather explained that the Zheng Household monopolized pills and coerced pill refiners.
• The granddaughter revealed that the Zheng Household had used her and her grandfather to force her parents to refine pills until they died.
• The old man explained that the Yu Household had once helped them but later withdrew, and the granddaughter hinted that the Yu Household's actions had not been intentional.
• The old man decided to leave Jade Sun City with his granddaughter, despite their uncertain chances of survival.

Su Jiu and her companions fought Zheng Sui and his men, then questioned him about the Zheng Household’s control of the city’s resources. After executing Zheng Sui, they headed to the Yu Household, while the rescued girl watched them leave and dreamed of becoming like Su Jiu.

• Su Jiu punched Zheng Sui after he claimed the city’s law enforcers would not interfere with the Zheng Household, and she and her companions fought his men when he ordered them to attack.
• Two groups of law enforcers arrived but withdrew after recognizing Zheng Sui’s side, while Su Jiu and her companions defeated the hired muscle.
• Su Jiu stopped Zheng Sui from escaping and questioned him; he revealed that his eleventh brother and fourteenth sister controlled most street activity and the pill supply chain, but he knew little about spirit-draining stones.
• Yun Chao pressed Zheng Sui about his misdeeds, and Zheng Sui admitted to forcing himself on several young women.
• Su Jiu killed Zheng Sui and left with her companions, while the rescued girl told her grandfather she hoped to become as fierce and free as Su Jiu.
• Su Jiu and her companions headed for the Yu Household, confident that its backing would protect them in the city.

Su Jiu and her companions visited the Yu Household, where Yu Jin’s grandfather secretly tested her formation skills with a Confounding Trapping Array. After Su Jiu destroyed two of its formation eyes, the array dispersed, and the group reached the lavish council hall, where someone was brewing tea.

• A Yu Household guard led Su Jiu, Yun Huanling, Yun Chao, and Qiao Zirong into a courtyard guarded by a Fourth Tier Confounding Trapping Array.
• Su Jiu led the group through the shifting paths and deliberately chose a wrong route after Yun Chao asked what would happen if they did.
• Su Jiu realized someone was watching them and destroyed a peach tree that served as one of the array’s formation eyes.
• Yu Jin and his grandfather watched as the Formation Disk cracked, and the grandfather vanished after handing it to Yu Jin while Su Jiu’s group approached the third formation eye.
• The array dispersed, and Su Jiu and her companions entered the Yu Household’s lavish council hall, where they saw someone brewing tea.

Su Jiu confronted Yu Jin about his deception, and he explained that he had been investigating a strange courtyard in the Zheng Household. A name on Yu Jin’s list of unfamiliar Zheng Household members alarmed Yun Huanling, who wanted to go there immediately to confirm whether the person was someone he knew.

• Su Jiu demanded an explanation from Yu Jin, who claimed he had tested her because he hoped she could uncover a hidden passage or formation in an unused Zheng Household courtyard.
• Su Jiu saw through Yu Jin’s deception, and he apologized while insisting that his account of the courtyard was true.
• Su Jiu asked about the Zheng Household’s control over pills in Jade Sun City, and Yu Jin said the monopoly was nearly complete but did not extend to the Yu Household.
• Yu Jin gave Su Jiu two lists of unfamiliar people seen at the Zheng Household, and she spotted a description that caught her attention.
• Yun Huanling recognized the description and urgently asked to go to the Zheng Household, but Su Jiu held him back and told him to wait for an opportunity.

Su Jiu questioned Yu Jin’s Nascent Soul guard about the Zheng estate and learned that a man named Meng En, the Heavenly Secret Sect’s Eighth Elder, had been seen there using a black Compass. After uncovering clues that the Zheng Household’s heavily guarded Treasure Pavilion might conceal its true interests, the group planned to investigate the estate in seven days.

• Su Jiu met Yu Jin’s early-stage Nascent Soul guard and asked what he had observed at the Zheng estate.
• The guard described a man with a forehead scar and a mouth-corner mole who carried a solid black Compass, and said he had heard someone call him Meng En.
• Su Jiu recognized Meng En as the Heavenly Secret Sect’s Eighth Elder, while Yun Huanling struggled to accept the revelation.
• Yu Jin gave Su Jiu a Jade Slip containing Yu Yi’s map of the Zheng estate and its hidden traps.
• Su Jiu and the others suspected that the Zheng Household’s unusually guarded Treasure Pavilion might distract from what it truly wanted to protect.
• The group decided to infiltrate the Zheng estate seven days later.

Madam Mei accused Li Yan of causing her son’s death, while Zheng Li learned that unknown Golden Core cultivators had killed Thirty-Seventh and ordered his subordinates to investigate them. Lu Chuchu arrived in Jade Sun City to return Yu Jin’s sword tassel, and Yu Jin welcomed her warmly as Su Jiu watched their exchange.

• Madam Mei barged into Li Yan’s courtyard and cursed her over Thirty-Seventh’s death, prompting Li Yan to send Zheng Li a Message Talisman.
• Zheng Li learned that several Golden Core cultivators had killed Thirty-Seventh and ordered his subordinates to investigate their identities.
• Lu Chuchu arrived in Jade Sun City, parted from the Shu Family brothers, and went to the Yu Household to return Yu Jin’s sword tassel.
• Su Jiu questioned Yu Jin’s suspiciously safe route through the Zheng Residence, but Yu Jin dismissed her concerns.
• Yu Jin welcomed Lu Chuchu after she returned his sword tassel, and Lu Chuchu told him she had only pretended to be the woman he loved as an excuse.

Lu Chuchu insisted on joining Yu Jin and the others as they prepared to investigate the Zheng Household, while trying to stay close to Yu Jin and keep Su Jiu away from him. When the group split into two teams to follow different routes, Su Jiu agreed to lead the one taking the route considered dangerous.

• Lu Chuchu tried to ingratiate herself with Yu Jin, but he and the others made it clear they had private matters to discuss.
• Lu Chuchu revealed she had overheard their plans to investigate the Zheng Household and insisted on joining them as a fellow victim.
• After seven days, the group prepared for the nighttime investigation, and Yu Jin teased Lu Chuchu about her conspicuous white outfit.
• Lu Chuchu suggested splitting into two groups, and Su Jiu accepted the plan.
• Yun Huanling assigned Su Jiu, Yun Chao, and himself to the dangerous route, while Yu Jin, Qiao Zirong, and Lu Chuchu would take the safer route.

Su Jiu and the Yun brothers infiltrated the Zheng Household and discovered that its spiritual qi was being disrupted by an unknown Magic Treasure. At a hidden one-way Teleportation Array, Su Jiu waited for Yu Jin’s group and challenged Yun Huanling over the truths he feared discovering.

• Yu Jin, Qiao Zirong, and Lu Chuchu left separately, while Su Jiu and the Yun brothers surveyed the Zheng Household and found its spiritual qi currents scattered and chaotic.
• Su Jiu identified dozens of formations in the residence, including two she could not recognize, and suggested a Magic Treasure was disrupting the spiritual qi.
• Su Jiu led Yun Chao and Yun Huanling past formations and Golden Core patrols to the room marked on their map, where they found a concealed Teleportation Array.
• Su Jiu explained that the array was one-way, would activate for only ten breaths once its concealment was removed, and required the group to teleport together, so they waited for Yu Jin’s party.
• Su Jiu confronted Yun Huanling about his reluctance to face truths he might not accept, leaving the three in heavy silence.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling discussed how to handle Meng En, the Heavenly Secret Sect elder suspected of betraying his sect, while they waited for Yu Jin and the others. After the battered group arrived, they prepared to activate the room’s brief Teleportation Array, but Lu Chuchu accused Su Jiu of planning to abandon her.

• Yun Huanling asked Su Jiu to help capture Meng En if he proved to be a traitor, and Su Jiu agreed.
• Yu Jin, Qiao Zirong, and Lu Chuchu arrived an hour after Su Jiu’s group, battered from demon-beast attacks along their route.
• Qiao Zirong rested, while Lu Chuchu changed from her ruined white clothes into green clothing.
• Su Jiu explained that the room contained a Teleportation Array that remained active for only ten breaths, and Yu Jin agreed to activate it.
• Lu Chuchu accused Su Jiu of using the array to leave her behind, prompting Su Jiu to decide to address the matter directly.

Su Jiu rebuked Lu Chuchu for provoking her, then uncovered hidden formation patterns and spoke with a sealed painting spirit. The painting spirit explained how the Zheng Household had trapped her, leaving Su Jiu unable to free her for now.

• Lu Chuchu accused Su Jiu of liking Yu Jin, and Su Jiu threatened to kill her if she kept provoking her before ordering her to address her as Senior Su.
• Su Jiu moved a court-lady painting and revealed formation patterns, discovering that the painting contained a spirit who could communicate through Little Gift.
• Su Jiu moved an inkstone and other objects to uncover additional sections of the formation while the painting spirit shared what she remembered.
• The painting spirit explained that the Zheng Household had sealed her inside the scroll and that she could be freed only by killing the seal's maker or having a sufficiently skilled Formation Arts Artist remove the seal.
• Su Jiu apologized to the painting spirit because she could not help her, and the spirit smiled and shook her head.

Su Jiu and the others activated the complete formation and were transported to a corridor of stone chambers, where Lu Chuchu tried to break open a locked chest. Yu Jin rejected Lu Chuchu’s advances and confronted her about her existing betrothal, while Zheng Li learned the cultivators were staying at the Yu Household and gave an order to his subordinate.

• Su Jiu assembled the three incomplete patterns into a complete formation, and she and the others entered it before it transported them away.
• Zheng Li learned that the Golden Core cultivators had appeared in the Water Mirror and were staying at the Yu Household, then whispered an order to his subordinate.
• Su Jiu and the others arrived in a stone chamber and discovered a corridor lined with seven more chambers containing different objects and formations.
• Lu Chuchu tried to strike open a locked wooden chest, but Yun Chao stopped her and Su Jiu glared at her.
• Yu Jin told Lu Chuchu to address him as Senior and pointed out that she was betrothed to a member of the Shu Family.

Lu Chuchu tried to persuade Yu Jin to marry her, but he rejected and ridiculed her for her poor judgment, weak cultivation, and attempts to take shortcuts. After Yu Jin walked away, Su Jiu noticed spiritual qi fluctuate around Lu Chuchu’s hand, suggesting she had a way to threaten him.

• Lu Chuchu pleaded with Yu Jin to marry her, claiming their families would not oppose the match.
• Yu Jin rejected Lu Chuchu and blamed her recklessness for endangering the group with the sealed chest.
• Yu Jin listed Lu Chuchu’s past behavior and compared her poor cultivation and talent unfavorably with Su Jiu.
• Lu Chuchu threatened to ruin Yu Jin’s reputation and again offered him a chance to marry her, but Yu Jin walked away.
• Yun Huanling asked Su Jiu what Lu Chuchu could use to threaten Yu Jin, and Su Jiu pointed out the spiritual qi around Lu Chuchu’s hand.

Su Jiu investigated the stone chambers’ Teleportation Arrays and suspected that the Puppet was connected to a hidden mechanism. She opened the sealed chest with Qiao Zirong’s help, found it contained spirit-draining stones, and destroyed them.

• Su Jiu deduced that the seven chambers’ incomplete formation markings led to different destinations and suspected the eighth chamber’s Puppet was linked to the missing markings.
• Su Jiu went to the fourth chamber and questioned Lu Chuchu, who demanded half of the chest’s contents and threatened to ruin Su Jiu’s reputation.
• Qiao Zirong recognized the chest’s Talisman and dispelled it after stopping Su Jiu from touching it.
• Lu Chuchu opened the chest, screamed, and retreated when she saw it was full of transparent spirit-draining stones.
• Su Jiu froze the spirit-draining stones, lifted them from the chest, and shattered them into dust.

Su Jiu and the others discovered that the strange key controlled the puppet and activated a formation. Yun Huanling sent Lu Chuchu through the blue Teleportation Array leading outside while the rest entered a different formation.

• Su Jiu found that the awakened puppet could withstand the group's attacks and kept targeting only her.
• Su Jiu trapped the puppet briefly with an Ice Binding Talisman while Yun Huanling searched for its weakness.
• Yun Huanling realized the key controlled the puppet, and Su Jiu bent it to deactivate the puppet and complete a formation.
• Su Jiu entered the activated Teleportation Array in the eighth stone chamber.
• Yun Huanling warned Lu Chuchu not to enter that array, then led her to the third stone chamber and activated its exit formation.
• Yun Huanling immobilized and silenced Lu Chuchu, then threw her into the blue-glowing Teleportation Array.

Su Jiu and her companions found imprisoned Pill Refining Masters beneath the Zheng Household and overheard Zheng Eleventh and Zheng Fourteenth discussing their power struggle and secret supply chains. They learned that the siblings feared being linked to cultivators from the Yu Household, while the Zheng Household’s backer remained unidentified.

• Su Jiu sensed someone in the study and warned her companions, then discovered that the floor concealed chambers holding imprisoned Pill Refining Masters.
• Yun Huanling recalled hearing that the Zheng Household imprisoned disobedient Pill Refining Masters, while Yu Jin reacted with disdain toward the captives.
• Su Jiu and the others overheard Zheng Eleventh and Zheng Fourteenth discuss controlling the pill market, severing a spirit-draining stone supply chain, and maneuvering against Zheng Li and Eighth Brother.
• Zheng Eleventh learned that the Core Formation cultivators who killed Thirty-Seventh had entered the Yu Household and hurried away with Zheng Fourteenth to clear their connection to them.
• After the siblings left, Su Jiu inferred that Zheng Li controlled the spirit-draining stone operations and that a powerful sect might be backing the Zheng Household.