Chapter Summaries

After Qiu Yinong’s sudden death, the Misty Immortal Sect descended into a power struggle between Shui Rao’er and Qian Ling as their factions fought to choose the next sect master. The Seventh Elder refused to support either side and insisted that the sect should find Qiu Yinong’s killer.

• Qiu Yinong’s death threw the Misty Immortal Sect into chaos, and its members divided between Shui Rao’er and Qian Ling.
• At a heated meeting in the main hall, the Third Elder argued that the sect needed a new master before it could arrange Qiu Yinong’s funeral.
• The Seventh Elder rejected the argument and said finding the murderer would settle the sect’s people.
• The Seventh Elder threw a fruit at the Third Elder and mocked him, prompting the Third Elder to draw his Magical Artifact before Shui Rao’er’s gaze made him put it away.
• Qian Ling remained wary of the Seventh Elder, suspecting he would support neither her nor Shui Rao’er.

Shui Rao'er suspected that Qian Ling had help behind her and learned that the Young Master could not support her for now. About a dozen days later, Su Qingqing told Su Jiu that Qiu Yinong, the Misty Immortal Sect's Sect Master, had died, leaving Su Jiu shocked.

• Shui Rao'er questioned a shadowy figure about Qiu Yinong's death, and neither of them knew who was behind Qian Ling.
• The shadowy figure said the Young Master was occupied and gave Shui Rao'er a brocade pouch that could save her life.
• Shui Rao'er destroyed the Vermilion Beauty and decided it was time to get rid of Qian Ling.
• About a dozen days later, Su Qingqing worried that Su Jiu planned to join an operation in half a month, but Su Jiu said she had someone to kill.
• Su Qingqing told Su Jiu that Qiu Yinong had died, and Su Jiu asked when it had happened.

Su Jiu and Su Qingqing discussed the power struggle after Qiu Yinong’s death and the collapse of the Misty Immortal Sect into two factions. Su Jiu suspected hidden forces were behind the conflict, then gave Su Qingqing her hair ribbon as she prepared to gain experience.

• Su Qingqing told Su Jiu that the Misty Immortal Sect had split into the Spirit Moon Sect and the Water Moon School, with Qian Ling and Shui Rao'er rumored to have murdered Qiu Yinong for power.
• Su Qingqing recounted how the factions accused each other of conspiring with or killing Qian Ling’s lover, while an investigation found yiying grass in a sachet Shui Rao'er had given Qiu Yinong.
• Su Jiu guessed that Qiu Yinong had carried an important object when he died and suspected his personal disciple or another hidden player might be involved in the sect’s turmoil.
• Su Jiu told Su Qingqing that advanced cultivation could bring understanding of the Heavenly Dao, and Su Qingqing asked for a ribbon to remind her to work hard while gaining experience.
• Su Jiu gave Su Qingqing the ribbon from her hair, and Su Qingqing carefully wound it around her arm.

As the sects gathered at the Azure Tide Sect to prepare for an expedition against the Heavenly Demon Sect, Su Jiu reunited with old acquaintances and learned that Gu Ningyun would lead the Heavenly Music Pavilion's group. Su Jiu and Gu Ningyun met face to face, each surprised by the other's appearance.

• Tang Wuchen greeted Su Jiu formally, and his junior brother learned that the beautiful cultivator was the formidable Su Jiu.
• Su Jiu spoke with Feng Piaoxu, who told her that Gu Ningyun would lead the Heavenly Music Pavilion's group.
• Feng Piaoxu asked why she could not see through Su Jiu's cultivation, and Su Jiu realized the pavilion had not heard that she had reached the Nascent Soul Stage.
• Gu Ningyun arrived and revealed that she recognized Su Jiu's Nascent Soul cultivation; Su Jiu identified her as one of the Four Great Beauties.

Gong Hao sought help against the Four Great Sects, used a vial of blood to suppress his demonic qi, and planned ambushes for their journey to the Heavenly Demon Sect. Meanwhile, Su Jiu's group prepared to travel to the Savage Wilderness, where she revealed that her senior brother Ning Fan had also reached Nascent Soul Formation.

• Su Jiu met Gu Ningyun and found her beautiful and easy to talk to, while Feng Piaoxu remarked that Gu Ningyun rarely smiled.
• Gong Hao's elders urged him to seek help from Deputy Envoy Zuo, but he angrily refused and drank from the Scarlet Vial when his demonic qi began to rampage.
• After learning Su Jiu was among the travelers, Gong Hao ordered the Soulguiding Sect to ambush the approaching cultivators and planned additional attacks along their route.
• Gong Hao asked whether anyone had found Yi Feng Chen, who had disappeared along with the Heavenly Origin Lock.
• The Azure Tide Sect's group set out in ordinary clothes and split into teams; Su Jiu traveled with Xia Jue, Feng Piaoxu, and the masked Ning Fan.
• Su Jiu told Feng Piaoxu that Ning Fan was the Sect Master's Second Disciple and had reached Nascent Soul Formation before her.

Su Jiu, Feng Piaoxu, and Tong Qi discussed the rumors surrounding Qiu Yinong’s death and vanished corpse while traveling with Xia Jue’s team toward a Teleportation Array in Dusk Sky Forest. Xia Jue stopped the group on the forest’s outskirts for the night, and Su Jiu began surveying their surroundings with her divine sense.

• Tong Qi told Su Jiu and Feng Piaoxu that Qiu Yinong’s corpse had disappeared from his coffin during the funeral procession.
• Tong Qi argued that Qiu Yinong may have faked his death, while Feng Piaoxu proposed that a powerful cultivator had stolen the corpse to conceal evidence.
• Su Jiu and her companions continued toward the Teleportation Array in Dusk Sky Forest but remained near the forest’s outskirts after nearly half a day of travel.
• Xia Jue ordered the team to rest until dawn, and the exhausted golden core cultivators began meditating.
• Su Jiu stayed awake and extended her divine sense into the shadowy forest around the camp.

Su Jiu discovered a strange barrier in Dusk Sky Forest and saw a shifting star map inside the second jade bead, which shattered after showing its transformations. As Xia Jue’s team continued toward the inner region, Su Jiu and her senior brother identified a rogue cultivator as a likely spy and prepared to make his death look like an accident.

• Su Jiu sensed a barrier blocking her divine sense in the inner region of Dusk Sky Forest.
• Little Gift alerted Su Jiu that the second jade bead was glowing, and she saw a shifting star map that eventually shattered into fragments.
• Rogue cultivators questioned why the travelers had been split into more than a dozen teams, and Su Jiu realized the arrangement was meant to guard against spies.
• Su Jiu privately told Xia Jue she suspected a traitor, and Xia Jue revealed that he had identified a suspect and planned to kill him in Dusk Sky Forest.
• Xia Jue told Su Jiu that his master had set up the barrier, while the suspected spy remained quiet as the team traveled onward.

Su Jiu dismantled the modified Sevenfold Formation that had separated the cultivators and attacked them with resentful-qi shadows. The formation’s creator vanished, while the exposed spy wounded himself before Su Jiu reunited with Xia Jue’s party and the others.

• Su Jiu recognized the mist as a formation, calculated its structure, and destroyed three of its seven formation eyes while fending off black shadows.
• The separated cultivators struggled against the shadows, while Xia Jue calmly assured his group that someone would rescue them.
• The spy confronted the cloaked cultivator who had created the formation, complaining that the attackers were too strong and arguing over their debt to Gong Hao.
• Su Jiu destroyed the final formation eye, causing the cloaked cultivator to vanish and leaving the spy to cut himself and feign weakness.
• Su Jiu reached Xia Jue’s group, and the mist dispersed to reveal that the separated cultivators had been close together all along.

Xia Jue arranged for the Shadow Pavilion’s agents to kill the cultivator who had laid the formation, while Ning Fan prepared his group for possible danger. Su Jiu sensed approaching Mutant Man-Eating Bees and raised a modified Defensive Formation as the group braced for their attack.

• Xia Jue sent a Message Talisman after the formation-setter fled, and three Shadowless Agents intercepted and killed him.
• Ning Fan received two Message Talismans, burned them, and ordered his group to prepare for battle after passing through the Teleportation Array.
• Su Jiu sensed something approaching, and Xia Jue confirmed that it was too late to leave.
• Tong Qi identified the approaching demon beasts as Mutant Man-Eating Bees, alarming the rogue cultivators.
• Su Jiu raised a modified Defensive Formation that let the cultivators attack from inside, while the timid female cultivator studied it.

Su Jiu and Xia Jue fought the fifth-tier Bee King while the others held off its swarm, and Xia Jue’s plan to quietly eliminate the spy remained hidden in the chaos. After the battle, Su Jiu suspected the bee corpses were part of what Xia Jue had prepared for the spy.

• Mutant Man-Eating Bees surrounded the group’s defensive formation, while Su Jiu understood that Xia Jue had lured them toward the spy using bee-attracting powder.
• A fifth-tier Bee King attacked the formation, and Su Jiu and Xia Jue left to fight it while Tong Qi urged the others to keep killing the smaller bees.
• Su Jiu and Xia Jue battled the Bee King, which released poisonous powder; Xia Jue was hurt by it, but Su Jiu showed no discomfort.
• The weakened Bee King summoned the remaining bees away from the formation, and Su Jiu and Xia Jue helped wipe them out.
• After returning to the field of bee corpses, Su Jiu asked Xia Jue whether this was what he had prepared for the spy.

Su Jiu and Xia Jue uncovered the spy among their group and reached the teleportation array to the Savage Wilderness Land. On the other side, they found cultivators posing as rogues, and Xia Jue and Su Jiu suspected them of belonging to the Soulguiding Sect and collaborating with the Heavenly Demon Sect.

• A spy died after being stung by a Man-Eating Bee, and the timid Formation Arts Artist urged the group to burn the corpse before anyone could examine it.
• Xia Jue told Su Jiu that the Formation Arts Artist was a Nascent Soul middle-stage member of the Enforcement Hall's covert division who had scattered the powder used to drug the spy.
• After resting, the group reached the teleportation array on Dusk Sky Mountain, and Su Jiu repaired it before the cultivators traveled through.
• The group emerged in the Savage Wilderness Land surrounded by hostile cultivators carrying magic treasures marked with the Hundred Refinement Sect's insignia.
• Xia Jue identified the supposed rogue cultivators as members of the Soulguiding Sect, and Su Jiu asked whether they had joined forces with the Heavenly Demon Sect.

Su Jiu exposed a group of cultivators as members of the Soulguiding Sect and helped defeat them with Feng Piaoxu and Xia Jue. After treating Feng Piaoxu’s divine sense injury, Su Jiu remembered Mo Qi, wondering how she was doing.

• Su Jiu challenged the supposed rogue cultivators, and their leader ordered his people to kill the group, revealing their collusion with demonic cultivators.
• Su Jiu identified the attackers as Soulguiding Sect disciples after defeating the leader’s soul art and explaining that their divine sense barriers gave them away.
• Feng Piaoxu used her pipa to support the others against the Soulguiding Sect’s soul arts, but her divine sense began to suffer from the strain.
• Su Jiu and Xia Jue rang their Clear-Tone Bells together, clearing everyone’s minds and helping the group subdue the Soulguiding Sect disciples.
• Su Jiu offered Feng Piaoxu a Three Purities Pill for her injured divine sense, but Feng Piaoxu refused it and took a weaker pill of her own.
• Su Jiu recalled Mo Qi after seeing Feng Piaoxu’s reluctance to accept a precious pill.

Xia Jue’s group dealt with the Soulguiding Sect spies and continued through the Savage Wilderness, stopping at an inn to wait for the other groups. There, Tong Qi and Feng Piaoxu noticed Xia Jue’s special attentiveness toward Su Jiu, while Xia Jue warned her that Hu Zao had approached him with an ulterior motive.

• Xia Jue ordered Tang Ying to take the captured Soulguiding Sect disciples back and kill them if their sect refused to acknowledge them, and the Enforcement Hall’s Dark Division emerged to escort the prisoners.
• After four hours of travel, Xia Jue’s group reached an inn and decided to wait two days for the other groups to catch up.
• Tong Qi told Feng Piaoxu that Xia Jue acted differently around Su Jiu, and Feng Piaoxu wondered about the relationships among the Azure Tide Sect disciples.
• Hu Zao interrupted Su Jiu and Xia Jue to seek Xia Jue’s friendship, but Xia Jue’s cool response left him no opening to advance his scheme.
• Xia Jue privately warned Su Jiu not to assume that people like Hu Zao genuinely wanted to befriend her, and she praised Xia Jue’s talent in reply.

Gu Ningyun’s team was ambushed by a spy after forcing their way through a formation, but she defeated him with her konghou and a secret technique. After recovering, she led the team to a teleportation array, where they were immediately surrounded by another group of cultivators.

• Gu Ningyun’s team broke an enemy formation by force, leaving Gu Ningyun injured and her companions worried.
• A black-clad Nascent Soul cultivator attacked Gu Ningyun while she meditated, but she blocked his sword with her Nishang Konghou and revealed she had been conserving her strength because she suspected him.
• Gu Ningyun fought the spy with her melodies and movement techniques, then used a secret technique to reflect his forbidden art and kill him, though she was badly injured.
• The Heavenly Music Pavilion disciples rebuked an impatient cultivator who complained about waiting for Gu Ningyun to recover.
• Gu Ningyun recovered in two days, and her team traveled on without encountering any especially troublesome Demon Beasts.
• Gu Ningyun’s team reached a teleportation array, where a group of cultivators surrounded them; the team quickly defeated the attackers.

Ning Fan exposed and killed a Heavenly Devil Palace spy disguised as a Jade Sword Sect disciple, revealing that the impostor had murdered Little Bean’s senior brother. After the groups reunited, Xia Jue realized the mask could expose other infiltrators and punished Yi Zheng for failing to retrieve it.

• Ning Fan killed a disguised spy among the Jade Sword Sect disciples, and the group discovered the impostor wore the stolen skin of Little Bean’s senior brother.
• Little Bean explained how his senior brother had disappeared after they were separated, and vowed to make the Heavenly Devil Palace pay.
• A Medicine Gate disciple secretly took the mask, which Ning Fan noticed and reported with a Message Talisman.
• The groups assembled at the inn, where Qin Ming thanked Ning Fan after hearing what happened to Little Bean’s senior brother.
• Xia Jue realized the mask might help identify impostors in their own sect and scolded Yi Zheng for letting it go missing.
• Xia Jue barred Yi Zheng from accompanying him on missions for ten years, prompting Yi Zheng to plead with him.

Gong Hao struggled with his failing condition and ordered his followers to capture Su Jiu, while his half-brother Gong Wusheng pursued his own plans in the Rear Hall. After Qiu Yinong demonstrated the Heavenly Demon Integration Technique, Gong Wusheng learned about Su Jiu’s extraordinary cultivation and considered the coming conflict.

• Gong Hao learned that his spies had died, demanded a Qian Ling Blood-Coagulating Pill, and accused the absent Yi Feng Chen of betraying him.
• Gong Hao ordered his subordinates to capture Su Jiu after dismissing talks with the Enchanting Demon Sect and the Earth Devil Palace.
• Gong Wusheng canceled his sect’s contract with the two sects after they demanded more of the southern mineral veins.
• Qiu Yinong told Gong Wusheng that the Heavenly Demon Integration Technique had worked, though it reduced his cultivation to the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Gong Wusheng asked Qiu Yinong about Su Jiu and was astonished to hear of her exceptionally rapid rise to Nascent Soul.

Su Jiu and Xia Jue’s alliance arrived at the Heavenly Demon Sect, where demonic cultivators tried to intimidate them with illusions and a display of powerful fighters. Gong Hao emerged from the palace, and Su Jiu sensed that he had changed from the man she remembered from her past life.

• Su Jiu and the allied forces approached the Heavenly Demon Sect’s main hall through dense demonic qi.
• Demonic soldiers appeared around Xia Jue’s party, but Su Jiu used Little Gift to see that most were only masses of demonic qi and not real cultivators.
• Four nascent soul demonic cultivators appeared before the palace, and Gu Ningyun identified two at the middle stage and one at the late stage.
• Xia Jue assigned the allied cultivators their opponents and ordered Su Jiu to attack the early-stage nascent soul cultivator.
• Gong Hao emerged from the palace, and Su Jiu noticed his frightening red eyes and suspected that events had changed since her past life.

Gong Hao recognized Su Jiu and coveted her as a source of medicine, while the sects began their assault on the Heavenly Demon Sect. After Xia Jue urged her to calm down, Su Jiu redirected her attack toward one of the demonic cultivators guarding Gong Hao.

• Gong Hao recognized Su Jiu and concealed his excitement as he realized she was the person he had been searching for.
• Feng Piaoxu and Tang Wuchen confronted Gong Hao over the deaths of their senior sister and junior brother, and Gong Hao revealed that Jiang Qi had led him to Su Jiu.
• Su Jiu charged at Gong Hao with her Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword and Ice Spikes, prompting Xia Jue and the others to attack as well.
• Qin Ming's group fought the Demon Soldiers and demon shadows while Gu Ningyun killed a demonic cultivator who threatened Feng Piaoxu, who then played Clear Heart, Calm Spirit to soothe the group.
• Xia Jue told Su Jiu to calm down, and she adjusted her course to attack a nascent soul early stage demonic cultivator guarding Gong Hao.

Su Jiu used her purifying spiritual qi and swordsmanship to fight the Heavenly Demon Sect’s Nascent Soul cultivators. After killing one elder and Xia Jue slew another, Su Jiu went to help Gu Ningyun, who warned her of a divine sense attacker just as the enemy vanished and Gu Ningyun cried out for her to watch out.

• Su Jiu dispersed demon shadows with Ice Spikes and drew the attention of the Heavenly Demon Sect elders.
• Gu Ningyun and Xia Jue engaged two Nascent Soul cultivators while Su Jiu faced an early-stage elder.
• Su Jiu’s spiritual qi neutralized the elder’s sinister treasures, and she killed him with the Glazed Moon Sword Art.
• Xia Jue killed the late-stage cultivator, and Su Jiu moved to help Gu Ningyun against a middle-stage opponent skilled in divine sense attacks.
• The demonic cultivator vanished as Su Jiu approached, and Gu Ningyun shouted for her to watch out.

Su Jiu killed another Heavenly Demon Sect elder and discovered that Gong Hao had descended with power far beyond the Nascent Soul Realm. Gong Hao confronted her, revealed his history with Bai Su and his pursuit of Su Jiu, and left her facing his pressure.

• Su Jiu reflected a divine sense attack with the Jade Bead Bracelet and used the Ice Silk Net to kill a hidden Heavenly Demon Sect elder.
• Su Jiu spotted the elder’s escaping nascent soul, but a black beam from above annihilated it before she could act.
• Gong Hao descended from the platform and released powerful pressure as he asked Su Jiu whether she had seen his companion.
• Su Jiu named Bai Su and Yi Feng Chen, then recognized that Gong Hao had raised his cultivation beyond the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Gong Hao recalled how Bai Su’s request had led him to target Su Jiu, and decided that Su Jiu had come to him on her own.