Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu secretly used spatial power to remake Trial Peak’s formations, sending competitors into routes of her own design. Yun Huanling and Lan Fang Ziyi recognized that the changes were not the Heavenly Dawn Sect’s work and compared their encounters with false formation eyes.

• Murong Feng suspected the Heavenly Dawn Sect was not responsible for the strange formations after hearing a disciple describe the Reverse Five Elements Formation.
• Su Jiu completed a spatial formation that let her control Trial Peak’s layout, then scrambled its routes and moved participants onto harder paths.
• Three Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples were trapped in the Purple Bamboo Killing Array, where they struggled to identify its formation eye from the sole safe spot.
• Yun Huanling and Lan Fang Ziyi met in a simple Third Tier Formation and agreed the Heavenly Dawn Sect likely had not arranged their pairing.
• Yun Huanling told Lan Fang Ziyi that he had sensed a false formation eye earlier and avoided destroying it, preventing the formation from resetting.

Ming Yun was hunted by a female cultivator who accused her of stealing talents through mysterious beads, and Ming Yun tried to conceal the truth and kill her. Li Yishi intervened just as the attacker struck, leaving them poised to fight.

• Lan Fang Ziyi sighed that Yun Huanling had finally begun using his brain, and Yun Huanling teased him about noticing only after breaking the False Formation Eye.
• A sinister female cultivator pursued Ming Yun inside a Fourth Tier Formation, destroying two of her defensive Magic Treasures as Ming Yun stalled for time.
• The woman accused Ming Yun of stealing her talent and revealed that the beads Ming Yun swallowed contained talents taken from others.
• Ming Yun refused to return the beads, and the woman attacked her after giving her ten breaths to decide.
• Li Yishi blocked the attack, and Ming Yun claimed the woman was possessed by a demon seed and had devoured a disciple's soul.
• Li Yishi drew his sword against the woman, who dodged and accused him of belonging to the Water Moon School.

A hidden witness recorded Li Yishi and Ming Yun pursuing a female cultivator, then chose to sell the information to the Shadow Pavilion. Inside Trial Peak, Su Jiu fought two Heavenly Dawn Sect elders for control of the formations, while Yun Huanling and Lan Fang Ziyi realized she might still be inside causing the disruption.

• Li Yishi and Ming Yun drove the female cultivator away, and an unseen man recorded the encounter and decided to sell the information to the Shadow Pavilion.
• Su Jiu suppressed the efforts of two Heavenly Dawn Sect elders trying to repair Trial Peak's formations.
• Yun Huanling and Lan Fang Ziyi emerged from Trial Peak and learned that its Heaven-Viewing Mirror had stopped working and its formations had been altered.
• Yun Huanling deduced that another force inside Trial Peak was opposing the elders, and Lan Fang Ziyi recognized Su Jiu as a likely culprit.

Sect Leader Li investigated the upheaval in the formation as Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples slowly emerged, while Murong Feng’s account suggested someone had deliberately altered the trials. Inside the formation, Ming Yun and Li Yishi faced repeated attacks, and Li Yishi noticed the Netherworld Lamp she summoned.

• Sect Leader Li rejected the elder’s suggestion to invalidate the competition and questioned him about the missing Sky-Shielding Seal.
• A Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple emerged and told Sect Leader Li that the formation had changed and that someone had helped him escape.
• Murong Feng told his sect’s leader what had happened, and the leader concluded that Murong Feng had been dragged down by someone else.
• A female cultivator attacked Ming Yun and Li Yishi repeatedly, injuring Ming Yun’s face.
• Ming Yun asked Li Yishi whether she was more beautiful than Su Jiu, and Li Yishi reassured her.
• When another sword attack flashed toward them, Ming Yun summoned her Netherworld Lamp, and Li Yishi noticed it.

A hidden female cultivator ambushed Ming Yun, whose Netherworld Lamp protected her, while Li Yishi warned Ming Yun against using her heretical treasure. After Silver Snow abruptly cut off contact with Su Jiu, she destroyed the miniature Trial Peak and its formations, then left with the crowd as Heavenly Dawn Sect elders rushed in to search for the culprit.

• The female cultivator attacked Ming Yun again, but Ming Yun blocked the strike with her Netherworld Lamp.
• Li Yishi questioned Ming Yun about the lamp and warned her that heretical treasures could corrupt her; Ming Yun agreed to use it sparingly, and he promised to keep her secret.
• The female cultivator noticed something and vanished just before the barrier around Trial Peak began to break apart.
• Silver Snow contacted Su Jiu, complained that she had not reached out, and asked her for hugs and kisses as compensation.
• Silver Snow grunted, made a splash, and cut off the Fox Tail Mark; unable to reach him, Su Jiu destroyed the miniature Trial Peak and its formations.
• Su Jiu left Trial Peak with the crowd and saw Heavenly Dawn Sect elders hurry inside to look for the culprit.

The Heavenly Dawn Sect caught Feng Jing with the Sky-Shielding Seal, and she revealed that a laborer disciple named Mu Ran had recruited her to disrupt the trial. When Sect Leader Li ordered Mu Ran brought in, they learned she had already withdrawn from the sect, leaving Ming Yun uneasy.

• The Heavenly Dawn Sect elders failed to catch the culprit, but they arrested Feng Jing with the Sky-Shielding Seal.
• Sect Leader Li questioned Feng Jing, who admitted blocking the Heaven-Viewing Mirror to get back at Ming Yun and said Mu Ran had planned the rest.
• Feng Jing recounted how Mu Ran, disguised as a laborer disciple, persuaded her to borrow the seal and target Ming Yun.
• Sect Leader Li questioned Ming Yun about her injuries, then ordered a disciple to bring Mu Ran to the hall.
• Ming Yun followed the disciple to the Outer Gate, where the steward revealed that Mu Ran had withdrawn from the Heavenly Dawn Sect two days earlier.

After the Heavenly Dawn Sect’s tournament scandal spread across the Azure Mist Continent, rumors claimed the sect had no Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators and faced demotion. Su Jiu returned to the Azure Tide Sect still unable to contact Silver Snow, and Xia Jue continued the investigation.

• Su Jiu heard other sects’ disciples condemn the Heavenly Dawn Sect’s tournament and boarded the flying boat with Su Mianmian.
• Two days after the competition, rumors spread that the Heavenly Dawn Sect lacked Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators and had staged the tournament to recruit talent and bolster its reputation.
• A recording of the competition circulated, further damaging the Heavenly Dawn Sect’s standing, while Mu Ran listened to a storyteller recount Ming Yun’s defeat by Su Jiu.
• Su Jiu asked Xia Jue to investigate Silver Snow, but the inquiry had yielded no news by the time she returned to the Azure Tide Sect.
• Su Jiu agreed to investigate the souls scattered from the spirit banner and left the search for Silver Snow in Xia Jue’s hands.

Su Jiu returned to Ice Veil Peak and found Luo Ge visiting Chu Luohen, then discussed her Enforcement Hall assignment to Xi He City with him. Chu Luohen agreed to accompany her, drove Luo Ge away after she tried to join them, and left Su Jiu asking what was going on.

• Su Jiu returned to Ice Veil Peak and found Luo Ge seated with Chu Luohen in Ice Veil Hall.
• Su Jiu told Chu Luohen that she would soon travel to Xi He City for an Enforcement Hall assignment with Yun Huanling.
• Chu Luohen said he would accompany Su Jiu because Xi He City was chaotic.
• Luo Ge asked to join the assignment and accused Su Jiu of disliking her when Su Jiu refused.
• Chu Luohen told Luo Ge to stop visiting Ice Veil Peak and offered to pass a message to Chu Mojin.
• After Luo Ge left, Su Jiu asked Chu Luohen what was going on.

Chu Luohen told Su Jiu how Luo Ge obtained a key to Ice Veil Peak, and Su Jiu questioned whether the story about their masters being friends was true. Chu Luohen changed the formation to bar Luo Ge from the peak, and Luo Ge went to confront Ning Hai.

• Chu Luohen explained that Luo Ge was a personal disciple of the Vast Righteousness Sect who had come to the Azure Mist Continent to find someone and had stayed at the Azure Tide Sect.
• Chu Luohen said Chu Mojin had traded Luo Hao a key to Ice Veil Peak for the magic treasure needed to escape a barrier.
• Su Jiu suspected Luo Ge had told Chu Luohen that Chu Mojin and Luo Hao were friends, and Chu Luohen changed Ice Veil Peak's formation so Luo Ge could no longer enter.
• Luo Ge tried to enter Ice Veil Peak, found the formation blocking her, and blamed Su Jiu for the change.
• Luo Ge went to Heavenly Origin Hall to question Ning Hai, who greeted her as she arrived.

Luo Ge left the Azure Tide Sect after Ning Hai refused to intervene on her behalf, while Ning Hai and Hong Ling discussed her motives and Chu Luohen’s uncertain future. In the Enforcement Hall, Xia Jue and Ning Fan decided to keep Xie Gu confined as they considered the growing demon-seed threat and a clue involving the Heavenly Secret Sect’s Spirit Banner.

• Luo Ge blamed Su Jiu for her humiliation, but Ning Hai declined to punish Su Jiu or persuade Luo Ge to stay, and she left the Azure Tide Sect.
• Hong Ling and Ning Hai discussed Luo Ge’s feelings for Chu Luohen, Su Jiu’s return, and their doubts about Luo Ge’s character.
• Ning Fan asked Xia Jue whether they would leave Luo Ge unchecked, and Xia Jue replied that their Master was still present.
• Xia Jue said Xie Gu would remain confined because the demon seed inside him could not be removed and might endanger others.
• Ning Fan warned that demon seeds would continue appearing, and Xia Jue acknowledged that sects could only imprison the infected for now.
• The Enforcement Hall’s investigation uncovered several leads, including one connected to the Heavenly Secret Sect’s Spirit Banner and the latest Mirror incident.

Xia Jue concealed Silver Snow’s whereabouts from Su Jiu and persuaded Ning Fan to help keep her occupied, fearing she would enter the Demon-Subduing Land before she was ready. Days later, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen arrived in Xi He City and spotted Ming Yun searching for Mu Ran with disciples of the Water Moon School.

• Xia Jue burned the papers containing information about Silver Snow and told Ning Fan not to let Su Jiu hear about him from the Shadow Pavilion.
• Ning Fan warned Xia Jue that Su Jiu would blame herself if she learned the truth, then agreed to cooperate for now and asked whether Xia Jue’s seal was still all right.
• Xia Jue assured Ning Fan that Su Jiu would not find out, and touched his chest after Ning Fan left.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen arrived in Xi He City disguised and noticed a woman in white whose face seemed familiar to Su Jiu.
• Su Jiu saw Ming Yun searching for Mu Ran with Li Yishi and Water Moon School disciples, while Ming Yun claimed Mu Ran was after her life.
• Chu Luohen urged Su Jiu to focus on their investigation, and they hurried off to look for clues.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen investigated Xi He City and learned that the Water Moon School and Bright Moon School had divided it into South City and North City. The chapter left Su Jiu suspecting that the schools’ discriminatory pricing concealed a deeper reason.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen explored Xi He City’s market, where she noticed that vendors listed two prices for their goods.
• Su Jiu offered a stallholder two middle-grade spirit stones to explain the different prices.
• The stallholder told Su Jiu and Chu Luohen that Xi He City was divided into South City and North City, separated by a wall and controlled directly by the two schools.
• Su Jiu worked out that merchants gave discounted prices to disciples of the school that controlled their side of the city.
• The stallholder claimed the pricing helped the schools save face, but Su Jiu doubted his explanation and suspected a hidden motive.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen gathered information in North City and grew suspicious of the wall separating it from South City, where cultivators reportedly vanished. They decided to wait for Yun Huanling before investigating, while Chu Luohen quietly struggled with being an extra companion on Su Jiu’s mission.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen learned that travelers had to leave North City and circle around Xi He City to reach South City, and a stallholder warned them against crossing the wall because cultivators disappeared there.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen privately suspected the stallholder’s claim that disappearances occurred on both sides was uncertain or false, and Su Jiu doubted that a curse was responsible.
• As they visited stalls, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen learned that the Water Moon School required vendors to stay for three years in exchange for accepting their spirit-rooted children as disciples.
• That night, Su Jiu considered whether the wall’s disappearances involved teleportation and what role the Water Moon School played, while noting that she could not sense the Demon Mirror in Xi He City.
• Chu Luohen sensed something discordant near the wall through Heart Discernment but kept quiet, knowing Su Jiu wanted to investigate with Yun Huanling; he felt displeased about being an unexpected addition to their agreement.

A shadow warned Shui Rao'er that Azure Tide Sect investigators, including Xia Jue, had reached North City and urged her to stop targeting Qian Ling. Shui Rao'er learned Qiu Yinong was alive and protecting Qian Ling, then endured a bout of illness before the shadow's master punished him for revealing too much.

• A shadow warned Shui Rao'er that Azure Tide Sect's people had reached North City and cautioned her against acting recklessly around Xia Jue.
• Shui Rao'er recalled that the secret elixir had drastically shortened her lifespan and that her unstable Spirit Severing Stage cultivation left her vulnerable.
• The shadow explained that Qiu Yinong was alive and that his divine sense protecting Qian Ling could overpower Shui Rao'er.
• Shui Rao'er asked where Qiu Yinong was, received medicine from the shadow, and later stored the pills after recovering from her illness.
• The shadow's master slapped him and rebuked him for talking too much.

Yun Huanling traveled to Xi He City with Lan Fang Ziyi and received Su Jiu’s message asking them to meet her and her martial uncle. The next morning, they met Su Jiu and encountered her martial uncle, Chu Luohen, whose reputation intrigued Lan Fang Ziyi.

• Yun Huanling reluctantly set off for Xi He City with Lan Fang Ziyi after Hongguang arranged for his senior brother to watch over him.
• Yun Huanling received Su Jiu’s message inviting him to meet her and her martial uncle at an inn in North City, and he stored the talisman in his Dark Spirit Wood box.
• Lan Fang Ziyi saw the message and understood why Yun Huanling was disappointed that Su Jiu’s martial uncle would be joining them.
• The next morning, Yun Huanling and Lan Fang Ziyi greeted Su Jiu outside her room.
• Chu Luohen emerged from the neighboring room, and Lan Fang Ziyi recognized him as Su Jiu’s junior granduncle and recalled stories of his talent and reputation.

Su Jiu and the others reasoned that the Demon Mirror’s mastermind might be a cultivator who used mirrors as a Life-Bound Treasure, then split up to investigate both sides of Xi He City. On her way to South City, Su Jiu found a bloodied woman clutching a mirror shard that seemed to be a subsidiary mirror.

• Yun Huanling greeted Chu Luohen as his Martial Uncle, making Lan Fang Ziyi and Su Jiu uncomfortable.
• Lan Fang Ziyi explained that he and Yun Huanling were searching for the scattered souls released from the Spirit Banner.
• Su Jiu proposed that the mastermind might not be a demonic cultivator and suggested watching for people whose Life-Bound Treasures were mirrors.
• Su Jiu decided to investigate South City despite Yun Huanling's remarks about the Bright Moon School's good reputation, and the four agreed to meet at the inn at midnight.
• On her way to South City, Su Jiu encountered a deranged, bloodied woman holding a mirror shard whose aura was faint.

Su Jiu discovered that a young woman from the Hu family had been deliberately crippled and took her to a cultivator clinic in South City. The clinic's physician agreed to treat her and remarked that Su Jiu seemed different from the Water Moon School's disciples.

• Su Jiu examined the Hu family girl and found that her nascent soul, spirit root, sea of consciousness, and mental state had been badly damaged.
• Su Jiu knocked the girl unconscious, gave her pills, removed a mirror shard from her hand, and carried her to a South City clinic.
• The clinic receptionist refused to treat them because he mistook them for Water Moon School disciples, but the physician invited them inside.
• Su Jiu introduced herself as a member of the Azure Tide Sect and laid the girl on the physician's couch.
• The blind physician recognized Su Jiu's name and said she gave him a different impression from the Water Moon School's disciples.

Su Jiu watched Qi Song treat the unconscious Liu woman and learned how his rare perceptive talent, Fresh Growth in the Clear Breeze, could soothe divine sense. Qi Song revealed that her injuries were nearly irreparable and linked her shattered nascent soul and destroyed spirit roots to immortal pool spring, leaving Su Jiu poised to learn more about the Water Moon School.

• Qi Song treated the young woman by sending green threads through her meridians, while Su Jiu used her otherworldly eyes to observe his healing.
• Su Jiu identified Qi Song's rare talent as Fresh Growth in the Clear Breeze, and Qi Song praised her knowledge and devotion to the Azure Tide Sect.
• Qi Song told Su Jiu that the young woman's meridians and sea of consciousness were damaged, while her nascent soul was shattered and her spirit roots destroyed.
• Qi Song explained that the young woman could recover only to appear like an ordinary person and said immortal pool spring had destroyed her chance to cultivate again.
• Qi Song connected immortal pool spring to the Water Moon School's many nascent soul cultivators and said the young woman might know more about it.

Qi Song told Su Jiu that the Immortal Pool Spring raised cultivators’ power by draining their life force, prompting her to connect it to the Wuyi Tribe’s Holy Maidens and Shui Rao’er’s schemes. He then began explaining how South City differed from North City, though he had not yet answered what Su Jiu most wanted to know.

• Qi Song explained that the Immortal Pool Spring rapidly advanced cultivators but consumed their life force, and said no one had believed his warning.
• Su Jiu connected the spring’s effects to the Wuyi Tribe’s Holy Maidens, whose life force drained after missions, and questioned Shui Rao’er’s motives for raising Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Qi Song estimated that the girl in the bed had fewer than a hundred years to live, despite a Nascent Soul cultivator normally living around a thousand years.
• Su Jiu asked Qi Song about South City and North City, and he recognized that she had come from North City and belonged to the Azure Tide Sect’s Enforcement Hall.
• Qi Song described South City as loosely governed by the Bright Moon School, with consistent medicine prices and room for residents to do business, but he had not yet explained the differences Su Jiu sought.

Su Jiu learned that the girl she had brought to Qi Song would have only about twenty years to live, then left to investigate the wall between South and North City. After hearing guards discuss disappearances and the feud between the schools, she questioned whether the Bright Moon School’s protection of rogue cultivators was truly its main purpose.

• Qi Song told Su Jiu that the girl’s injuries had stabilized but that she had only about twenty years to live, even if she cultivated or took another Lifespan Pill.
• The girl awakened, and Su Jiu left her in Qi Song’s care before departing the clinic.
• A Cen told Qi Song that she had seen the girl with Water Moon School Senior Disciple Li Yishi in North City.
• Su Jiu concealed herself near the dividing wall and overheard guards say that people who crossed into North City disappeared.
• Su Jiu found no barrier or array on the South City side and suspected the Bright Moon School was using its protection of rogue cultivators to oppose the Water Moon School.