Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu and her companions faced the Double Killing Array’s attacks, and she split from Chu Luohen to locate the second formation eye with Xia Jue’s help. After she destroyed it and the illusion collapsed, Chu Luohen praised her independent method of reading formations, easing some of her worry about being unable to use her Pupil Art.

• Chu Luohen led Su Jiu, Xia Jue, and Qi Song through the dead trees, while Xia Jue explained that the withered branches carried Spirit Severing Stage power.
• Su Jiu calculated that the Double Killing Array had a second formation eye in the wind and split off from Chu Luohen to find it.
• Xia Jue followed Su Jiu and helped her evade the withered branches as the breeze grew into a hurricane filled with hidden wind blades.
• Su Jiu and Xia Jue reached the hurricane’s center, where Su Jiu used the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword to destroy the second formation eye and collapse the illusion.
• Su Jiu explained how she had traced the formation eye through the wind, and Chu Luohen praised her developing style of formation-breaking.

During the journey to the Merfolk Tribe, Xia Jue and Chu Luohen quietly watched over Su Jiu as she struggled with losing her Otherworldly Eyes. After the group entered a Demon-Feeding Formation, they found that its magic beasts were made from demonic qi.

• Xia Jue noticed Su Jiu secretly testing her meridians and innate ability, and saw her silently cry after nearly passing out.
• Xia Jue and Chu Luohen both kept watch over Su Jiu without trying to counsel her, believing that finding the Merfolk Tribe and removing her curse script would help her most.
• After the group broke the first formation, Su Jiu recognized the next as a Demon-Feeding Formation, which records claimed had been destroyed ten thousand years earlier.
• Xia Jue explained that the Azure Tide Sect's Enforcement Hall had been established during the ancient calamity and that its destruction of demonic manuals might have left some hidden away.
• A magic beast emerged from the demonic qi, and Su Jiu cut it apart; the beast then dissolved into demonic qi, prompting her to question why the formation used mist instead of beasts.

Su Jiu used the Spirit-Cleansing Pool Water to purify her sword and clear the demonic qi, allowing the group to escape the Demon-Feeding Formation. They entered a Day-Night Maze Formation, where Su Jiu realized they would face danger through seven day-night cycles, and Greenfires gathered around them as night fell.

• Su Jiu infused the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword with Spirit-Cleansing Pool Water and destroyed the conjured magic beasts, gradually clearing the demonic qi.
• Little Pearl told Su Jiu that the Spirit-Cleansing Pool Water was no longer replenishing itself, and Su Jiu suspected this was connected to Little Gift.
• Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Qi Song entered the third ring's Day-Night Maze Formation, which Qi Song recognized as a simplified version of his clan's formation.
• Su Jiu calculated that the maze would bring danger each night and require them to endure seven day-night transitions to break it.
• As night fell, pairs of Greenfires gathered in the Jungle and began moving toward Su Jiu and the others.

Su Jiu, Xia Jue, and Chu Luohen fought off swarms of poisonous Greenfire while Qi Song stayed inside Su Jiu’s Defensive Formation. As the battle dragged on through an unnaturally long night, they began investigating what was wrong with the formation.

• Su Jiu placed Qi Song inside a Defensive Formation, then joined Xia Jue and Chu Luohen in battling the Greenfire.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen used ice-infused Sword Qi while Xia Jue wielded scorching fire, but the Greenfire kept arriving in endless waves.
• After more than an hour passed without dawn, Su Jiu became distracted and a Greenfire bit Chu Luohen’s wrist before she killed it.
• Chu Luohen told Su Jiu to focus on the fight and explained that they could consider the formation during the brief lulls between attacks.
• After another three waves, Xia Jue joined Su Jiu as she stared at the false stars, and asked whether something had gone wrong.

Su Jiu and her companions learned how to break the formations and survived successive nights by defeating waves of demon beasts, while discovering they could conserve their strength by leaving the last beasts alive. Outside, the Black Water Snake received a mysterious cloaked visitor who seemed to be hiding from someone in particular.

• Su Jiu recognized the formation’s star map, destroyed the brightest star, and ended the first night, though the seven-day count had to restart.
• Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Xia Jue survived the Greenfire’s attacks during the next night by working together.
• Su Jiu destroyed the fate star again, and the group faced Blazing Firebirds, with Su Jiu defending while Chu Luohen and Xia Jue attacked.
• Su Jiu observed that each new beast wave appeared only after the previous one was completely killed, and Xia Jue agreed to try leaving the last two alive in future battles.
• The Black Water Snake transformed into a black-clad woman and admitted a floating cloaked visitor to her palace.
• The black-clad woman teased the visitor for hiding his appearance and suggested he did not want a certain person to see him.

The woman in black learned that the people she was supposed to intercept had arrived three days earlier, while Su Jiu and her companions faced a horde of magic beasts on the seventh night of the formation. Su Jiu killed a sixth-tier magic beast with a desperate full-strength strike, and Chu Luohen noticed her wounded palm afterward.

• The cloaked figure confronted the woman in black about their contract and told her the targets had arrived three days earlier, prompting her to leave and intercept them.
• The woman in black mocked the cloaked figure and departed, while passing Shrimp and Crab Soldiers glimpsed golden hair beneath the figure's fallen cloak.
• Su Jiu and the others realized that no new demon beasts appeared while any enemies remained, but on the seventh night a horde of magic beasts attacked all at once.
• A sixth-tier magic beast cracked the fifth-tier defensive formation, and Su Jiu drew it away while Xia Jue and Chu Luohen fought other beasts.
• Su Jiu used her bloodied Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword against the beast, then unleashed a full-strength strike that split its head and killed it.
• Chu Luohen came to Su Jiu and turned up her palm, seeing that its wound had not healed.

Su Jiu and her companions chose the purple teleportation array after she prepared a way to escape and return for the Jade Slip. They emerged in the Black Water Snake's storeroom, where the queen ordered her soldiers to seize them.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen reasoned that the purple formation was an ancient array its later modifier could not fully control.
• Su Jiu suspected someone might be waiting beyond the white array, so she engraved paired teleportation formations as an escape plan.
• Su Jiu, Xia Jue, Chu Luohen, and Qi Song entered the white array, which brought them to the Black Water Snake's storeroom.
• The Black Water Snake ordered the stunned Shrimp and Crab Soldiers to seize the four, unaware that Su Jiu had already signaled her companions.

Su Jiu and her companions escaped the Black Water Snake Queen after looting her storeroom, then searched the captured Jade Slips for Curse Arts. They entered the purple Teleportation Array unaware that it housed two spirits, while Little Pearl revealed he already possessed copies of the Jade Slips they had collected.

• Su Jiu and the others gathered the storeroom's ownerless items and Jade Slips before the Black Water Snake Queen attacked them, and Su Jiu used a Formation Disk to teleport the group away.
• The Queen vented her fury on the Shrimp and Crab Soldiers, whose low-level bodies could not withstand the poison in her tail.
• Back at the arrays, Su Jiu learned that Little Pearl had copies of the Jade Slips they had collected, but she kept searching with Qi Song, Chu Luohen, and Xia Jue for Curse Arts texts.
• The four gathered and stored the Jade Slips concerning Curse Arts before entering the purple Teleportation Array.
• After they left, the purple array and a distant voice spoke, revealing that the array contained two spirits.

Su Jiu and her companions discovered that the room of skeletal remains contained an active hidden treasure setup that prevented them from teleporting out. They began connecting its spiritual qi points to unravel it, but the lines turned red just as the treasure seemed close to appearing.

• Su Jiu examined the room and identified seven spots where spiritual qi was unusually concentrated, including a fissure at the center.
• Chu Luohen recognized the room as a hidden treasure setup, and the group realized the setup had activated when they entered the purple formation.
• Su Jiu's teleportation array failed, confirming that they could not leave without unraveling the setup.
• Su Jiu and the others joined the six spiritual qi spots in pairs until their connecting lines stabilized.
• The spiritual qi lines turned red, bathing the room in an eerie glow as the group neared the hidden treasure.

Su Jiu and Xia Jue discovered that the Hidden Treasure Setup contained the sacred artifact Returning Shadow, Flowing Light, which trapped each person in an illusion built around a secret they wanted to uncover. As Su Jiu entered meditation, Qi Song’s illusion began revealing the painful story of how Huo Yun joined the Water Moon School.

• A black opening widened in the room, and a stone pillar emerged as the red light formed flowing characters across it.
• Xia Jue identified the pillar as Returning Shadow, Flowing Light and explained that each cultivator had to face its perilous illusion alone to survive and leave the space.
• Su Jiu learned that abandoning the search for a hidden truth could free someone from the illusion, while interruption meant death.
• Qi Song’s illusion showed him and Huo Yun traveling together to Xi He City and hearing that the Immortal Pool Spring could help someone reach the nascent soul realm.
• Huo Yun secretly went to the Water Moon School to seek the spring, and when Qi Song tried to stop him, Huo Yun said he had joined the school and ordered Qi Song to leave.

Qi Song relived the betrayal that had left him blind and heartbroken, then returned to the past within Returning Shadow, Flowing Light and uncovered the illusion. After saying goodbye to Huo Yun, he left the formation, while Su Jiu and the other two remained in meditation.

• Qi Song witnessed the truth of Huo Yun’s capture and learned that Huo Yun had arranged for him to be beaten so Shui Rao'er would believe they were not close.
• An indistinct voice asked Qi Song whether he would return to the past, and he agreed, entering an illusion where he stopped Huo Yun from acting and left Xi He City with him.
• As the illusion continued, Qi Song noticed inconsistencies in Huo Yun’s memories and realized that the life he was living was false.
• Qi Song thanked the illusion for letting him spend time with Huo Yun again, said goodbye, and watched the illusion crumble.
• Qi Song woke, accepted that he could not mend the regrets left by the dead, and sank into the stone pillar as the first to leave the formation.
• The Formation Spirits said Qi Song’s experience had untied a knot in his heart and would no longer become his heart-demon tribulation.

Returning Shadow, Flowing Light showed Chu Luohen a vision of his lonely childhood and rise from an isolated child to a powerful cultivator. The scene froze with Chu Luohen watching indifferently, and the voice observed that he had nothing he wished to know or change.

• Chu Luohen’s mother died giving birth to him, and his father left the residence after entrusting the newborn to its people.
• At five, Chu Luohen met Chu Mojin, who took him away and later brought him to the Azure Tide Sect.
• Chu Mojin ignored a suggestion that Chu Luohen suited the Heartless Dao and secretly placed him in the Outer Gate.
• Three disciples stole Chu Luohen’s pills and beat him, so he earned spirit stones through hunting demon beasts, talismans, and formations.
• Chu Luohen matched the three disciples’ cultivation, reclaimed his pills by force, and later returned to Ice Veil Peak after reaching foundation establishment.
• Chu Luohen continued to focus on cultivation until the vision froze, leaving him to hear that he had nothing he wanted to know or change.

Inside Returning Shadow, Flowing Light, Chu Luohen and Su Jiu confronted revelations about their pasts and powers before receiving spiritual qi from the sacred artifact. Xia Jue emerged beneath the sea after learning that more than a year had passed outside, then sent a message talisman toward an unknown destination.

• Chu Luohen questioned Returning Shadow, Flowing Light about its origins, reflected on his lack of attachment to the Chu Family, and absorbed the artifact's spiritual qi.
• Su Jiu saw that her origins were hidden behind white mist and learned that a curse had sealed her Heart Discernment and stopped her innate origin qi from regenerating.
• Returning Shadow, Flowing Light explained that Su Jiu could undo the seal by surpassing the caster's cultivation or killing the caster, then gave her spiritual qi and insight.
• Xia Jue suppressed a potential breakthrough, absorbed his share of the spiritual qi, and questioned Returning Shadow, Flowing Light about its gifts.
• Xia Jue emerged beneath the sea in Merfolk Tribe territory, learned from Green Jade that over a year had passed, and sent a message talisman away.

The Black Water Snake learned that the man in the black cloak was leaving and resolved to pursue Su Jiu to regain the attention of the people above. Meanwhile, Qi Song reunited with Xia Jue at the Merfolk Queen’s palace, where Xia Jue presented the Jade Slip on Curse Arts and allowed Princess Jiao Zhu to remain for the discussion.

• The Black Water Snake questioned whether Su Jiu had died, and the man in the black cloak told her he was leaving on orders from above.
• The man in the black cloak hinted that finding Su Jiu’s corpse was the Black Water Snake’s only remaining way to regain notice, and she said she understood.
• The Merfolk Queen’s guards found Qi Song, who had recovered and reported that curse script had appeared in the Secret Passage.
• Xia Jue arrived with two merfolk princesses and told the Merfolk Queen he had obtained the Jade Slip on Curse Arts.
• Princess Jiao Zhu insisted on staying, and Xia Jue agreed to let her remain while Qi Song watched him with a strange look.

Xia Jue transcribed the merfolk jade slips from memory so Jiao Zhen could search for a way to help Su Jiu. They discovered Su Jiu’s curse sealed her innate talent and bloodline, and the only relevant jade slip was missing half its material on breaking the curse.

• Xia Jue used his photographic memory to copy the jade slips onto a hundred blanks and offered a Recording Stone so Jiao Zhen could verify them.
• Jiao Zhu asked when Su Jiu and Chu Luohen would emerge, while the Queen noticed her youngest daughter’s feelings for Chu Luohen.
• Qi Song told Xia Jue that he sensed something strange about the merfolk, and Xia Jue explained that they were Divine Race descendants abandoned by their own kind.
• Jiao Zhen found three jade slips about curses sealing meridians, divine sense, and innate talent and bloodlines.
• Qi Song revealed that Su Jiu’s condition belonged to the third category, and Jiao Zhen disclosed that the jade slip on breaking that curse was incomplete.

Jiao Zhu warned the water snake that Jiao Zhen had begun practicing the curse-breaking arts, while a hooded chief dismissed the stolen Jade Slip as no threat. After two years of cultivation, Su Jiu reached Nascent Soul Great Perfection, woke, and left with Chu Luohen.

• The water snake attacked Jiao Zhu, and they argued over their contract and the missing person Jiao Zhu wanted.
• Jiao Zhu told the water snake that Jiao Zhen was practicing the curse-breaking arts and warned her to stop him.
• A hooded chief received word that the Jade Slip had been stolen but chose to continue into the Demon-Subduing Land.
• Two years later, Chu Luohen had stabilized at Nascent Soul Great Perfection, and Su Jiu reached the same realm.
• Su Jiu absorbed the surrounding spiritual qi, woke, and left with Chu Luohen by activating the stone stele.

After three years of meditation, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen emerged with stronger cultivation in a coral cluster beneath the sea. They discovered a possible source of the shrimp soldiers’ half-human forms and overheard two injured soldiers discussing the need to return there to replenish their spiritual qi.

• Returning Shadow declined to leave the stone stele, while the other formation spirits discussed Su Jiu’s sealing curse and the help he had given her.
• Su Jiu’s meditation lasted three years, raising her cultivation to nascent soul realm great perfection, and she reunited with Chu Luohen in an underwater coral cluster.
• Chu Luohen sensed an unpleasant aura like that of the Shrimp and Crab Soldiers near the center of the coral cluster, so the pair waited to investigate.
• Two injured shrimp soldiers arrived and complained that they reverted to their original forms if they did not return to the area to replenish their spiritual qi.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen followed two injured Shrimp Soldiers to a crystal field, where they found a flower resembling the Everlasting Flower and learned it could heal rot. After one soldier murdered his companion to frame him for stealing a petal, Su Jiu captured him and discovered the Water Snake Queen had issued a wanted notice for them.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen overheard the Shrimp Soldiers discussing their spreading rot and followed them to a crystal field.
• Su Jiu recognized the enormous golden flower as resembling the Everlasting Flower, though she sensed it was not the same one she had seen before.
• The Shrimp Soldiers tore leaves from the flower to heal their wounds, and Su Jiu noticed that a central petal gave its user a trace of demon aura.
• One Shrimp Soldier killed his companion so the dead soldier would take the blame for stealing a flower petal.
• Su Jiu stopped the surviving Shrimp Soldier with an Ice Spike and learned that the Water Snake Queen had put out a wanted notice for her and Chu Luohen.

Su Jiu interrogated a Shrimp Soldier about the black pills that empowered the sea monsters and the Everlasting Flower controlled by their Queen. Learning that the flower appeared after the Queen arrived, Su Jiu suspected someone had left Swallowing Heaven and decided she might have to confront the Black Water Snake.

• Su Jiu forced the Shrimp Soldier to explain that a black pill from a cloaked man gave monsters greater cultivation but left them permanently half-transformed and bloodthirsty.
• The Shrimp Soldier revealed that eating anything after taking the pill caused festering wounds, and gave Su Jiu a bottle of the pills.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen found demon aura and concealment herb in the pills, and Chu Luohen explained that the herb drew out a creature’s true nature.
• The Shrimp Soldier said the Everlasting Flower appeared after the Queen arrived and that the Queen could control it.
• Su Jiu connected the flower to Swallowing Heaven and the Heretical Cultivator, then killed the Shrimp Soldier and left with Chu Luohen.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen returned to the merfolk palace and learned that Qi Song and the Eldest Princess were in seclusion. Su Jiu identified Jiao Zhu as the likely mole and suspected her of using Curse Arts, but Jiao Zhu noticed their secretive exchanges as she continued leading them through the city.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen were escorted to the palace, where the Queen told them Qi Song had gone into seclusion to study Curse Arts with the Eldest Princess.
• Su Jiu showed the Queen a black pill, but Jiao Zhu knocked it away and rebuked Su Jiu for bringing strange objects to her mother.
• Jiao Zhu offered to show Su Jiu and Chu Luohen the cities, and Su Jiu accepted while privately telling Chu Luohen that Jiao Zhu was the mole.
• Su Jiu explained that Jiao Zhu had likely betrayed them from the start and had used Curse Arts in the secret passage; she also suspected the black pill contained curse script.
• Jiao Zhu noticed Su Jiu and Chu Luohen exchanging glances, then teased Su Jiu about calling her martial aunt, and Su Jiu rejected the claim.