Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen followed Xiaotao to learn why she had been seeking spirit stones, discovering that she was trying to find her missing little sister, Little Nuannuan. Xiaotao left her sick father and mother and went to a Su Family pawnshop to sell herself, but the shopkeeper refused her.

• The Su Family group left the teahouse after its leader warned the injured man, and Su Jiu and Chu Luohen followed Xiaotao out.
• Xiaotao returned to her parents’ home, where her father learned that the person holding Little Nuannuan demanded more spirit stones.
• Su Jiu noticed that Xiaotao’s mother smiled as Xiaotao left, and she told Chu Luohen that the family members seemed more complicated than they appeared.
• Xiaotao went to a Su Family pawnshop and offered to sell herself, but the shopkeeper rejected her and accused her of slandering the family.

Su Jiu overheard Xiaotao’s dealings with a demon who demanded spirit stones or a magic treasure for a spirit-draining stone. Su Jiu and another figure caught Xiaotao, and the chapter ended as they took her whistle.

• Xiaotao begged the Su Family shopkeeper for help finding her sister, but he refused and explained her history of borrowing spirit stones and fleeing her servitude contract.
• After leaving the pawnshop, Xiaotao used a Whistle Flute to summon a faceless figure made of demon aura outside Peace City.
• The demon demanded either ten thousand spirit stones or a magic treasure, while Xiaotao insisted she could not provide either and revealed her contempt for her missing sister.
• Xiaotao decided to target teahouse patrons for a magic treasure, unaware that Su Jiu and another figure were nearby.
• Su Jiu subdued Xiaotao with the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword and took the whistle, which Xiaotao believed could help her cultivate despite having no spirit root.

Su Jiu exposed the Bone Whistle as a demon-tainted human finger bone and left Xiaotao behind after defeating a mistaken cultivator. She and Chu Luohen headed for the Su Family, planning to investigate the demon imprisoned beneath Great March Mountain, while Xiaotao heard a mysterious voice ask whether she was willing to accept her situation.

• Su Jiu stopped Xiaotao from grabbing the Bone Whistle, treated her with part of a Returning Spring Pill, and was attacked by a woman in a bamboo hat who mistook the act for poisoning.
• Xiaotao told the woman that Su Jiu had stolen her whistle and tried to kill her, prompting the woman to demand that Su Jiu return it.
• Su Jiu trapped the woman with her domain and a Spirit-Locking Chain, then used Golden Light to cleanse the Bone Whistle and reveal it was a human finger bone.
• Su Jiu returned the finger bone to Xiaotao, who recoiled in horror, and the woman realized Xiaotao had lied before leaving.
• Su Jiu told Chu Luohen that the demon aura on the Bone Whistle might be linked to a demon imprisoned beneath Great March Mountain, and Chu Luohen sent a Message Talisman to the Azure Tide Sect.
• After Xiaotao finished vomiting and despaired of ever gaining an immortal destiny, a voice sounded in her mind and asked if she was willing to accept this.

Xia Jue punished Zhao Si and his father while responding to Chu Luohen’s inquiry about the Great March Mountain array. Su Jiu and Chu Luohen met Su Shi, a Vast Righteousness Sect disciple and Su family cousin, as the family considered whether to return to the Vast Heaven Continent.

• Xia Jue heard Chu Luohen ask who had led the previous reinforcement of the Composite Grand Array at Great March Mountain, then learned Zhao Si and his father had been punished.
• Su Yi’s cousin Su Shi took over the money house and pawnshop matters while Su Yi was away, and repeatedly confronted Xiaotao over her unpaid IOUs.
• Su Shi met Su Jiu and Chu Luohen, was struck by Su Jiu’s beauty, and recognized Chu Luohen as an Ice Veil Peak disciple.
• The Su Family Head explained that their branch had originated when Su Household Disciples fled the Vast Heaven Continent a thousand years earlier.
• Su Jiu raised the possibility of the family returning to the Vast Heaven Continent, and Su Shi said they still had two years to decide.

Su Jiu asked the Su Family Head about the strange storm and cold that preceded her discovery forty years earlier, then found Peace City and Great March Mountain shrouded in gray. Meanwhile, Xia Jue discovered that the disciples who reinforced Great March Mountain’s seal had died, leaving him worried that danger was approaching.

• Su Jiu told the Su Family Head that Su Mianmian would wake within a month, then asked where he had found her and what unusual events had occurred beforehand.
• The Su Family Head recalled a July storm, unnatural cold, and sudden return of warmth before his party found Su Jiu hanging from a tree near Great March Mountain.
• Su Jiu asked the Su Family Head to take her to the place where he had found her, but Su Shi arrived to report that something had happened.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen followed the Su Family Head outside and saw that grayness shrouded Peace City and nearby Great March Mountain.
• Xia Jue found that Chen He, who had led an expedition to reinforce Great March Mountain’s seal, was recorded as dead, and Feng Qi confirmed that the other participants had also died.
• Xia Jue concluded that Chu Luohen had likely noticed something wrong with Great March Mountain and warned that trouble might soon descend on it.

Xia Jue and Su Jiu connected the deaths of the formation reinforcers and the spreading gray mist to the Nightmare Demon sealed beneath Great March Mountain. Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Su Shi went to investigate after Peace City activated its defensive formation, leaving the cause of the reinforcers’ deaths unknown.

• Xia Jue suspected the seal on Great March Mountain was in danger and decided to seek help from Ning Hai at Cloudmist Peak.
• Su Jiu and Su Shi sensed the strange flow of spiritual qi toward Great March Mountain, and Su Jiu linked it to the formation’s reinforcement three years earlier and the Bone Whistle clone.
• Chu Luohen received Xia Jue’s Message Talisman, prompting the Su Family Head to alert the other lineages and activate Peace City’s City-Guarding Grand Formation.
• Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Su Shi left for Great March Mountain to assess the seal and try to suppress the Nightmare Demon before it broke free.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen concluded that the Nightmare Demon had used clones to collect spirit stones and Magic Treasures to weaken the Seal Formation, while Su Jiu recalled that the previous reinforcers had died a year after their work.

Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Su Shi fought Nightmare Demon clones as they ventured deeper into Great March Mountain. They noticed the shadows were growing more numerous and powerful, while Su Shi revealed a Cloudborn Beast totem that drained his spiritual qi.

• Su Jiu spotted and destroyed a Nightmare Demon clone with the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword, while Su Shi marveled at her supreme-grade spirit treasure.
• A Nightmare Demon clone attacked Su Shi, who summoned a Cloudborn Beast totem from the mark in his palm and destroyed it at great cost to his spiritual qi.
• Chu Luohen easily annihilated another clone with Scarless, while Su Shi wondered how Su Jiu had defeated hers with one strike.
• The group encountered increasingly numerous and powerful shadows as they ventured deeper into Great March Mountain, and Su Jiu began helping Su Shi when he struggled.

Su Jiu confronted Su Shi about his schemes involving Xiaotao and learned how Xiaotao had deceived others to collect Spirit Stones. As Su Jiu and the others rested, the Nightmare Demon's shadows gathered around the exposed Composite Grand Array, and a frail figure appeared among them dragging a sack.

• Su Jiu accused Su Shi of deliberately tarnishing the Su Family's reputation to hasten her father's return to Vast Heaven Continent, and Su Shi confirmed her suspicions.
• Su Shi explained that Xiaotao had hoarded borrowed Spirit Stones, sold her younger sister, and tricked her stepmother into providing more stones.
• Su Shi revealed that a being inside Xiaotao's Bone Whistle had promised to give her a spirit root in exchange for ten thousand Spirit Stones.
• Su Jiu warned Su Shi not to damage the Su Family's reputation again, then began regulating her energy as Su Shi rested too.
• Strong winds swept the sand and stones from the Composite Grand Array on Great March Mountain as black shadows gathered around it.
• A frail figure appeared among the shadows, moving stiffly and dragging a black cloth sack.

Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Su Shi fought their way through increasingly dense mist toward the formation, encountering powerful Nightmare Demon clones and the bones of those killed in an earlier tragedy. Su Jiu explained the Four Great Households’ losses caused by Liu Xing'er, and the group continued onward as Su Shi was injured and sensed a change in himself.

• Xiaotao dragged a sack of spirit stones to the formation and opened it.
• Su Jiu trapped a powerful Nightmare Demon clone with a Void Talisman, and she, Chu Luohen, and Su Shi destroyed it with a combined sword strike.
• Su Jiu used her otherworldly eyes to guide the group through the mist as they defeated more Nightmare Demon clones.
• Su Jiu told Chu Luohen that Liu Xing'er had once used people from the Four Great Households as bait, and that the bones nearby likely belonged to those who died.
• The group encountered increasingly frequent Nightmare Demon clones, fought as many as five at once, and Su Shi was injured and noticed a change in himself.

Su Jiu explained how the Nightmare Demon invaded Su Shi’s sea of consciousness and agreed to guard him while he fought it. When Su Shi was nearly overwhelmed, Su Jiu sent Spirit-Cleansing Pool Water into his consciousness, leaving him to recognize her help and reconsider his plan to take the Su Family members back.

• Su Jiu explained that the Nightmare Demon created nightmares by entering its victims’ seas of consciousness and devouring their dreams and divine senses.
• Su Shi asked Su Jiu to stand guard while he resisted the black aura, and she agreed.
• Su Shi entered his sea of consciousness but could not disperse the black aura, which spread throughout it and weakened him.
• Su Jiu asked Chu Luohen whether the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl could affect the Nightmare Demon’s clones, and he said it should work on them.
• Seeing Su Shi was close to losing consciousness, Su Jiu sent a drop of Spirit-Cleansing Pool Water into his sea of consciousness.
• The golden water cleared away the black mist, and Su Shi recognized its aura as Su Jiu’s and wondered how her help would affect his plan to take the Su Family members back.

After saving Su Shi, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen encountered Xiaotao, who appeared to be fleeing Nightmare Demons but had deliberately drawn them there. Su Jiu confronted Xiaotao about her obsession with cultivation and her humanity, then held out a faintly glowing Green Jade Bead Bracelet.

• Su Shi woke after the golden droplet vanished from his sea of consciousness, and he abandoned his plan to force the Su Family back to the Vast Heaven Continent because Su Jiu had saved him.
• Su Jiu spotted Xiaotao running toward them and suspected she had willingly become involved with a Nightmare Demon to pursue cultivation.
• Two weak Nightmare Demon clones attacked Su Jiu and Chu Luohen, who destroyed them as Xiaotao watched.
• Xiaotao pretended to plead for help, claiming her little sister had fallen into a black cavern, but Su Jiu and the others remained wary and unmoved.
• Su Jiu asked whether Xiaotao's sister was still alive and challenged her for no longer wishing to be human.
• Su Jiu held out a faintly glowing Green Jade Bead Bracelet before Xiaotao.

Su Jiu used the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl to expose Xiaotao’s fear of its power and realized the girl was bound by a contract to the Nightmare Demon. A Recording Stone revealed damage to the grand formation and a little girl connected to Xiaotao, leaving Su Jiu to suspect the Nightmare Demon had manipulated Xiaotao into bringing the stone to them.

• Su Jiu offered Xiaotao the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl, and Xiaotao recoiled in fear instead of touching it.
• Su Jiu recognized that the Nightmare Demon had placed a master-servant contract on Xiaotao, and Xiaotao tried to flee while throwing a Recording Stone at her.
• Su Jiu examined the Recording Stone and saw the damaged grand formation, which she and Chu Luohen believed the Nightmare Demon had waited to exploit.
• The Recording Stone showed a little girl, and Su Jiu suspected the Nightmare Demon had intended Xiaotao to deliver the recording to them.
• Xiaotao revealed that the girl was her younger sister, whom she had sold, and said Little Nightmare had given her the stone while promising it would help her escape.

Ning Hai summoned True Lord Yuxiu and True Lord Qianqiu to respond to the Nightmare Demon, which Su Jiu and Chu Luohen had gone to investigate at Great March Mountain. Xia Jue prepared to follow them, then revealed his bitterness over the seal suppressing his cultivation.

• Ning Hai introduced Xia Jue to True Lord Yuxiu and his martial uncle, True Lord Qianqiu, on Cloudmist Peak.
• Ning Hai explained that most elders were away reinforcing the seal at the Nightfall Cold Pool and that Su Jiu and Chu Luohen had gone to Great March Mountain.
• True Lord Qianqiu immediately vanished to head to Great March Mountain after hearing who had discovered the threat.
• True Lord Yuxiu asked whether Su Jiu was the girl who advanced fastest in Azure Realm history, then suggested Xia Jue might match anyone if his seal were undone.
• Xia Jue asked Ning Hai to let him take their people to Great March Mountain, and Ning Hai warned him to be careful.
• After leaving, Xia Jue bitterly reflected on the seal suppressing his cultivation and how much faster he might have advanced without it.

A little girl’s blood weakened the Composite Grand Array trapping the Nightmare Demon, forcing Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Su Shi to replenish it. The Nightmare Demon possessed Xiaotao and sent her after the child, but Su Jiu stopped her and confronted her.

• The little girl touched the golden formation and accidentally pressed her bleeding palm against it, causing the Composite Grand Array to dim.
• Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Su Shi fought off the Nightmare Demon's clones and poured spiritual qi into the faltering formation.
• The Nightmare Demon sensed the formation strengthening and possessed Xiaotao, sending her to attack the little girl.
• Su Jiu severed Xiaotao's transformed hand before it could reach the child, then warned Xiaotao that she would end her if she refused to act human.

Su Jiu and her companions struggled to contain the Nightmare Demon as their spiritual qi ran low and the array neared collapse. Chu Qianqiu arrived just in time to strike the demon and trap him again, leaving him taunted and unable to flee.

• Xiaotao blamed the Nightmare Demon for taking control of her body, but Su Jiu said a demon had entered Xiaotao's heart and trapped her in an array.
• The Nightmare Demon realized the toddler's blood could break the array, then grew hopeful when the three people reinforcing it began to tire.
• The Nightmare Demon attacked the Composite Grand Array, so Su Jiu and Chu Luohen layered a Sixth Tier array over it while Su Shi recovered.
• The Nightmare Demon broke free and charged at Su Jiu, but Chu Qianqiu arrived and cleaved through his shadow before trapping him in a circle.
• Chu Luohen identified Chu Qianqiu as their master and Su Jiu's grandmaster, and Chu Qianqiu mocked the trapped Nightmare Demon.

After the Nightmare Demon vanished from True Lord Yuxiu's Spirit-Seeking Pagoda, Su Jiu questioned the shattered formation and learned that Xiaotao's little sister had disappeared with the demon. Xia Jue arrived and took charge of the search, while the demon's escape and destination remained unknown.

• True Lord Yuxiu and Chu Qianqiu arrived, and Chu Qianqiu teased Chu Luohen and welcomed Su Jiu and Su Shi.
• The Nightmare Demon vanished from the white ring, and True Lord Yuxiu could no longer locate it with her Spirit-Seeking Pagoda.
• Su Jiu questioned Xiaotao and learned that the monster had appeared, Xiaotao's little sister and a piece of yellow paper had disappeared, and Xiaotao had hoped to obtain a spirit root.
• Su Jiu gave the distraught Xiaotao a healing pill but did not restore her clarity, and Chu Luohen reassured her that she had done enough.
• Xia Jue arrived, learned the Nightmare Demon had escaped, and asked the Enforcement Hall to take over the case.

Xia Jue took charge of the escaped Nightmare Demon, which fled to the Demon-Subduing Land with the abducted Little Girl. Three months later, Mian Mian woke and heard Jin Chen confess his feelings, but she choked before answering.

• Xia Jue recalled the Nightmare Demon's innate ability and concluded its escape had left it badly injured for centuries.
• The Nightmare Demon met the Silver Masked man, argued with him, and agreed to go to the Demon-Subduing Land with the Little Girl it had abducted.
• The Nightmare Demon and the masked man left, and the mist around the mountain forests and Peace City dispersed.
• Xia Jue sent the injured Su Jiu and Chu Luohen back to the sect, while Su Shi stayed with the Su Family to recuperate.
• Three months later, Mian Mian woke, learned what Su Jiu had done for her, and returned to Ice Veil Peak while Su Jiu remained in seclusion.
• Jin Chen confessed that he liked Su Mianmian and asked her to enter into a Dao Companion Contract, but she choked on her fruit before replying.

Su Mianmian fled after Jin Chen confessed his feelings, while Xia Jue and Chu Luohen clashed over Su Jiu’s family background and who should guide her. Xia Jue left after warning Chu Luohen not to interfere too much, and both men were left troubled by their feelings toward Su Jiu.

• Jin Chen confessed his feelings to Su Mianmian, who mistook his sincerity for a sign that he had lost his mind and hurried away.
• Jin Chen pointed out that Su Mianmian had walked out of her own room, and she fled even faster.
• Xia Jue visited Chu Luohen at Ice Veil Peak and asked about the investigation into Su Jiu’s true family background.
• Chu Luohen said he already had a lead, while Xia Jue offered Su Jiu the Enforcement Hall’s help and revealed that she held the Profound Spirit Command Token.
• Chu Luohen argued that Su Jiu needed guidance from her elders and could rely on Ice Veil Peak as her family, but Xia Jue urged him to let her make her own choices.
• After Xia Jue left, Chu Luohen shattered his teacup and brooded over his attention to Su Jiu, while Xia Jue also questioned his closeness to her.

After recovering from her seclusion, Su Jiu learned that a tree near where she was found had revived and carried an aura resembling hers, possibly linking it to her origins. She also discovered that Xia Jue’s borrowed Profound Spirit Command Token marked its holder as the next Enforcement Hall Master.

• Su Jiu reunited with the Ice-Congealing Beast and coaxed it into accepting Ice Fruits, but Chu Luohen’s remark about its weight sent it fleeing in indignation.
• Chu Luohen stopped Su Jiu from bowing and told her she no longer needed to treat him as an elder, leaving her confused.
• Chu Luohen explained that a lightning-scorched tree where the Su Family had found Su Jiu had revived, was nearing spiritual awakening, and bore a faint aura resembling hers.
• Su Jiu asked about the Profound Spirit Command Token, and Chu Luohen saw that Xia Jue had lent it to her.
• Chu Luohen told Su Jiu that the token was never lent out and that its holder was understood to be the Enforcement Hall’s next Hall Master.

Su Jiu tried to return the Profound Spirit Command Token, but Xia Jue persuaded her to keep it as protection and as a possible path to leading the Enforcement Hall. She reunited with Su Mianmian at Blazing Flame Peak, where Mianmian shut Jin Chen out so the sisters could talk.

• Su Jiu offered the Profound Spirit Command Token back to Xia Jue, who explained that returning it would cause rumors and urged her to keep it for her safety.
• After Su Jiu left, Feng Qi questioned Xia Jue about handing the Enforcement Hall to Su Jiu and going to battle, and Xia Jue said he believed the choice was worthwhile.
• Su Jiu went to Blazing Flame Peak and reunited with a tearful Su Mianmian, who had worried about Su Jiu pleading with the Medicine Gate's master for her.
• Jin Chen followed the sisters to Su Mianmian's room, but Mianmian pushed him outside after he said they were about to become Dao companions.
• Su Jiu understood Jin Chen's nod as confirmation that he had kept his promise, while Mianmian complained that he had been clinging to her.