Chapter Summaries

After reaching Out-of-Body, Chu Luohen wondered whether his tribulation had troubled his Dao heart, while a change began in the Ice-Cage Flower’s roots. At Medicine King Valley, Yan Yan failed to persuade the elders to return to the Ice-Melting Cave, and Qi Song remained hopeful that his friends would come back soon.

• Chu Luohen reflected on his advancement, Su Jiu’s repeated appearance in his thoughts, and a voice that had reminded him of his Dao.
• The Ice-Cage Flower’s roots loosened and the ground around them cracked slightly on the Ice-Melting Cave’s Second Level.
• Yan Yan proposed taking disciples to the Ice-Melting Cave’s Second Level, but an elder objected and questioned Su Jiu and Chu Luohen’s motives.
• Li Ran defended Su Jiu and Chu Luohen, and Yan Yan said the sect should not malign them, but the elders persuaded him to prioritize the Hongsheng Heavenly Road.
• Qi Song continued gathering and processing herbs, telling a junior disciple that his good friends would soon return.

After Su Jiu completed her advancement to Spirit Severing, she met the spirit vein spirit, which sent a clone to accompany her. The clone offered to remove the curse script inside her, but the Heavenly Dao gathered thunderclouds to stop it.

• Su Jiu awakened after advancing to Spirit Severing, and Chu Luohen had also reached that stage.
• A voice answered Su Jiu from the mountain and confirmed it was the spirit vein spirit that had protected them from the forest's demon beasts.
• The spirit vein spirit took the form of a little green snake and declared that a clone would go with Su Jiu.
• The clone coiled around Su Jiu's wrist and offered to remove her curse script, prompting the Heavenly Dao to gather thunderclouds overhead.
• Su Jiu understood that the Heavenly Dao would not allow the spirit vein spirit to interfere with her curse.

After the tribulation clouds cleared, Su Jiu named the Spirit Vein Spirit Little Green and learned that it could lead her and Chu Luohen out of the Cave through the Dense Forest. They turned away from the Second Level and headed back, leaving the Snow Sprite uncaught.

• Little Pearl and the Spirit Vein Spirit argued over whether it could go with Su Jiu, and Su Jiu stopped them with a warning.
• Su Jiu named the Spirit Vein Spirit Little Green, which accepted the name after Little Pearl warned it not to complain.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen crossed the Dense Forest without encountering demon beasts, while the beasts discussed Little Green's departure.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen found the ice spiritual qi in the cave had grown denser and concluded the Snow Sprite had escaped onto the Second Level.
• Little Green revealed that a demon beast in the Dense Forest could use an Innate Art to take them out, so Su Jiu and Chu Luohen headed back toward the forest.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen faced the Snow Sprite after she broke through the entrance wall, discovering that she had weakened but still outmatched them with her innate ice abilities. Su Jiu’s Snowfall Domain failed against the Snow Sprite’s domain-destroying power, leaving Su Jiu injured as the Snow Sprite formed an ice tiger to attack them.

• The Cave shook, and the Snow Sprite smashed through the wall between the Second Level and the Third Level.
• Little Green sensed that the Snow Sprite had weakened, and Su Jiu and Chu Luohen prepared to fight her.
• The Snow Sprite attacked with ice and snow, dodging Su Jiu and Chu Luohen’s spells and turning their familiar techniques against them.
• Su Jiu unleashed her Snowfall Domain, preventing the Snow Sprite from using spells, but Little Green warned that the Snow Sprite could destroy domains.
• The Snow Sprite shattered Su Jiu’s domain, causing Su Jiu to cough up blood, then shaped the ice into a tiger-shaped beast.
• Su Jiu recognized the ice tiger as the likely cause of a cultivator’s death on the Second Level and swallowed a pill to ease her injuries.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen battled the Snow Sprite and its Ice Tiger, struggling to survive the creature’s devastating blizzard. With Chu Luohen’s promise to teach her the Node Seal, Su Jiu learned it after hearing the explanation once and began to understand how to use it.

• Su Jiu trapped the Ice Tiger inside an Ice Barrier while Chu Luohen held off the Snow Sprite, and the Spirit Vein Spirit realized Su Jiu’s Ice Spiritual Qi rivaled the Snow Sprite’s.
• Su Jiu used Void Talisman Drawing to protect the severely wounded Chu Luohen from the Snow Sprite’s Ice Spikes, then suffered renewed pain from her curse script.
• The Snow Sprite unleashed a blizzard that shredded the surrounding vegetation, forcing Su Jiu and Chu Luohen to burn through their low-grade Defense Talismans.
• Chu Luohen recited the Node Seal’s contents to Su Jiu, who memorized them after one hearing and connected the technique to the nodes she had seen on the Second Level.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen used a node seal to subdue the Snow Sprite, though their unstable seal left her awake and able to speak. As Little Pearl argued with the Snow Sprite over who had attacked first, the spirit insulted Little Pearl’s bond with Su Jiu.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen drew the Snow Sprite into moving so they could place nodes in weaknesses in her spiritual qi barrier.
• Chu Luohen added two nodes while shielding Su Jiu, destabilizing the Snow Sprite’s control over the blizzard.
• Su Jiu completed the seal before the Snow Sprite could attack with the blizzard, but the spirit’s blade destroyed Su Jiu’s Supreme Spirit Artifact.
• The Snow Sprite remained awake inside the unstable seal and called Su Jiu and Chu Luohen despicable and shameless.
• Little Pearl defended Su Jiu and its equal contract after the Snow Sprite called it a human lapdog.

Su Jiu refused to take the dangerous Snow Sprite with her unless it willingly submitted to her. As she and Chu Luohen reached the Cavern’s exit, the Snow Sprite agreed to become her master-bound spirit under an equal contract lasting one hundred years.

• Little Pearl taunted the sealed Snow Sprite, and the Snow Sprite asked Su Jiu about the unusual purity of her ice spiritual qi.
• The Snow Sprite discovered Little Green on Su Jiu’s wrist and begged to leave with them, but Su Jiu rejected the idea because its viciousness put others at risk.
• Little Green sympathized with the Snow Sprite, but Su Jiu decided she would only take it if it willingly acknowledged her as its master.
• As Su Jiu and Chu Luohen reached the Cavern’s entrance, the Snow Sprite agreed to serve her in exchange for an equal master-binding contract lasting one hundred years.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen subdued the Snow Sprite, opened the passage to Beyond Western Mountain, and returned to Medicine King Valley. After Su Jiu revealed the truth behind the Ice-Melting Cave, Sect Master Yan saw the bones of generations of disciples and realized the Valley’s understanding had been wrong.

• Su Jiu signed a hundred-year equal contract with the Snow Sprite, then set rules for its behavior as they neared Medicine King Valley.
• The Snow Sprite shrank and perched on Su Jiu’s head, while its defeat caused the cave’s ice, snow, and cold to vanish.
• Sect Master Yan entered the Ice-Melting Cave with the elders and greeted Su Jiu and Chu Luohen, who confirmed they had opened the passage to Beyond Western Mountain.
• An elder questioned why Su Jiu had opened the mechanism so late, and Su Jiu asked where the Valley’s information about the cave had come from.
• Su Jiu explained that the Valley’s account was only partly correct and led Sect Master Yan and the elders to the False Second Level, where they found generations of disciples’ bones.
• Sect Master Yan looked at the remains and wondered whether the Valley had been wrong from the beginning.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen returned to Medicine King Valley after surviving the Ice-Melting Cave, and Su Jiu learned why Sect Master Yan had helped Chong Mo delay them. Their return stirred the sect, while Li Ran realized he had not wanted them to come back.

• Su Jiu led the elders through the cave’s second and third levels, where Sect Master Yan collected their forebear’s remains and the group saw the world beyond Western Mountain.
• Su Jiu recounted their journey through the Ice-Melting Cave, explaining that the founding patriarch had died on the fourth level while keeping Little Green and the Snow Sprite secret.
• Su Jiu questioned Sect Master Yan about giving Chong Mo the sect’s secret poison, and he revealed that Chong Mo had exchanged a debt for two conditions: the poison and keeping them away from the Azure Tide Sect.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen returned to Medicine King Valley, where disciples wondered whether they had truly conquered the cave and the elders welcomed them back.
• Li Ran recognized that Qi Song was delighted by Su Jiu and Chu Luohen’s return, while Su Jiu reassured Qi Song through Secret Voice Transmission and passed over Li Ran without concern.

As Medicine King Valley prepared to relocate, Su Jiu warned its people to avoid the dangerous Dense Forest and left with Qi Song. Li Ran could not bring himself to say goodbye, while Qi Song departed believing they would meet again.

• Su Jiu relayed Little Green’s warning about the Dense Forest to Sect Master Yan before leaving with Qi Song.
• Li Ran drunkenly confessed that he wanted Qi Song to stay in Medicine King Valley, then passed out before he could see him off.
• Su Jiu tried a cup of liquor, crushed the cup, and left after Chu Luohen watched her from nearby.
• Li Ran failed to appear when Qi Song departed, and Su Jiu noticed him hiding in a towering tree but said nothing.
• After Su Jiu and Qi Song left, Sect Master Yan called Li Ran down, and Li Ran complained that Su Jiu had known he was hiding.

Su Jiu and her companions witnessed Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples persecuting two Azure Tide Sect women in the city, where the sect’s influence had left the authorities unwilling to intervene. As the women began to falter in the fight, Su Jiu secretly struck one of their attackers with ice spiritual qi.

• Su Jiu and her companions stopped at a teahouse and saw Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples surround two Azure Tide Sect women.
• The Heavenly Dawn Sect leader threatened to strip the women of their sect robes, and they drew their Life-Bound Treasures to resist.
• Qi Song learned from a bystander that the city’s law enforcers sided with the Heavenly Dawn Sect and that rumors spoke of a planned move against them on the Hongsheng Heavenly Road.
• Su Jiu recognized that the women were using the cultivation method she had left behind, while the Snow Sprite and Little Pearl discussed the strength of innate spirits.
• As the women grew exhausted fighting seven opponents, Su Jiu sent a faint thread of ice spiritual qi into the leg of a disciple attempting a sneak attack.

Su Jiu secretly helped two Azure Tide Sect disciples drive off the Heavenly Dawn Sect bullies, while the crowd speculated about the hidden expert. Later, Su Jiu and her companions learned that the Azure Tide Sect was so impoverished it could no longer provide its disciples with pills.

• Su Jiu secretly struck the Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples with ice spiritual qi, disabling their legs as they fought the two Azure Tide Sect women.
• The Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples fled after the crowd laughed at them, and the two women bowed to the spectators without discovering who had helped them.
• Nascent Soul cultivators and other onlookers speculated that a powerful Azure Tide Sect senior had emerged from seclusion.
• The two women went to an inn to recover without returning to their sect, where they encountered Su Jiu and her companions again.
• Qi Song noticed that the women had not taken pills, and someone at the inn explained that the Azure Tide Sect had lost most of its resources and could no longer distribute pills.

Su Jiu and her companions learned that rumors of a Spirit Treasure had driven up demand for places on the Hongsheng Heavenly Road, and they entered an open auction to observe. There, Su Jiu saw Lou Sheng arrive as the changed Sect Master of the Azure Tide Sect.

• Su Jiu considered returning to the Azure Tide Sect after hearing the injured female cultivators discuss their sect.
• Su Jiu and her companions learned that the Rogue Cultivator Alliance had sent its last ten Hongsheng Heavenly Road places to auction amid rumors of a Spirit Treasure.
• Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, and Qi Song watched the auction house and saw the Fang Family, the Zhang Family, Xiao Fan, and the Old Lady from the Spirit Curse Sect arrive.
• Young attendants invited Su Jiu and her companions inside despite their lack of invitation letters, and the three took discreet seats at the edge of the venue.
• Su Jiu spotted Lou Sheng entering with a Jade Thumb Ring and the distant bearing of the Azure Tide Sect's Sect Master.

Su Jiu watched Ding Fen provoke Lou Sheng at the Auction House and remembered their deadly grudge. As the crowd discussed the Heavenly Dawn Sect’s rise and its persecution of the Azure Tide Sect, one cultivator began to notice something wrong with the story.

• Ding Fen arrived at the Auction House and mocked Lou Sheng while his lackeys insulted the Azure Tide Sect.
• Su Jiu recognized Ding Fen and recalled that their feud was a matter of life and death, while Qi Song watched her reaction with concern.
• Lou Sheng taunted Ding Fen about the sword strike that had left him bedridden for two years, angering him in front of the crowd.
• Ding Fen threatened Lou Sheng in a low voice but brushed past him rather than fight in the Auction House.
• A rogue cultivator explained how the Heavenly Dawn Sect had grown after defeating the Azure Tide Sect, and his companion began to sense a flaw in the account.

Su Jiu learned that the Heavenly Dawn Sect was relentlessly pursuing the Azure Tide Sect because of rumors about a Five Elements Cultivation Method, which she had left with True Lord Pinglan. Meanwhile, Ding Fen agreed to take one disciple to the Hongsheng Heavenly Road after he offered to humiliate Lou Sheng, then used the offer to expose the other disciples’ greed and frighten them into backing down.

• Su Jiu overheard two cultivators explain that the Heavenly Dawn Sect was hunting the Azure Tide Sect over rumors of a cultivation method that could lead to the spirit severing stage.
• Su Jiu realized the rumored method was the one she had left with True Lord Pinglan and suspected that only a few people knew what had truly happened in the great battle.
• Ding Fen watched Lou Sheng while a Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple offered to help humiliate him in exchange for a place on the Hongsheng Heavenly Road.
• Ding Fen agreed to take the disciple, prompting other Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples to kneel and ask for places too.
• Ding Fen challenged the kneeling disciples to trample Lou Sheng themselves, and they admitted their mistake and withdrew their requests.

At the auction, Su Jiu observed how preparations for the Hongsheng Heavenly Road had driven up prices for even ordinary supplies, while she explained to Qi Song why formations cost more than talismans. She detected that the supposedly superior-grade treasure artifacts were fake just as the auctioneer began presenting the first one.

• Ding Fen had a fellow disciple record the names of those who had stated their positions, alarming the kneeling disciples with his talk of having too many sect disciples.
• Two rogue cultivators discussed how scarce supplies had become before the Hongsheng Heavenly Road and agreed that they would avoid pursuing its spirit treasure.
• Su Jiu watched low- and middle-tier auction items sell at inflated prices and explained to Qi Song why a third-tier formation was worth far more than a third-tier talisman.
• Su Jiu examined several defensive treasures with her divine sense and realized they were not genuine superior-grade treasure artifacts.
• The auctioneer introduced the first treasure artifact as a sword forged by the Seventh-Tier Artifact Refining Master Huang Liang.

At the auction, Su Jiu recognized that the Evergreen Sword was a damaged treasure artifact being deceptively marketed, while many bidders were drawn in by its low starting price. As the bid reached forty-nine thousand spirit stones, Su Jiu urged the rogue cultivator beside her to trust his instincts, and he stopped raising his paddle.

• The auction presenter introduced the damaged Evergreen Sword as a superior-grade treasure artifact with a starting bid of five thousand spirit stones.
• Two rogue cultivators beside Su Jiu decided they would try to buy the sword for under fifty thousand spirit stones, while Su Jiu and the Snow Sprite recognized the danger of the supposed bargain.
• Ding Fen warned his Heavenly Dawn Sect juniors that the auction proprietor would not sell at a loss, but some disciples bid anyway.
• The Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple raised the bid to forty-nine thousand spirit stones as the sword's price climbed.
• A rogue cultivator beside Su Jiu struggled to raise his paddle, and Su Jiu told him to trust his subconscious, causing him to stop.

Su Jiu and her companions uncovered signs that the auction house was selling old, weakened treasures at inflated prices while major sects were warned in advance. The auction continued with the Great Restoration Pills also revealed to have lost much of their potency.

• A Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple won the Evergreen Sword for forty-nine thousand spirit stones, while Ding Fen ignored him.
• Su Jiu warned two rogue cultivators to follow their instincts, and they stopped bidding on suspicious items.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen noticed that a sixth-tier Defense Talisman had lost more than half its potency, but a small sect still bought it for sixty thousand spirit stones.
• The rogue cultivators concluded that the auction house had tipped off major sects and aristocratic clans about which items were defective.
• After a guest bought Great Restoration Pills, Qi Song recognized that they had lost more than half their medicinal potency from being stored too long.

Su Jiu connected the auction’s ancient crafting materials and the Treasure Pavilion’s goods to a possible alliance between the Heavenly Dawn Sect and the Rogue Cultivator Alliance. The auction moved on to bartering for Hongsheng Heavenly Road slots, while Su Jiu suspected the Heavenly Dawn Sect was tracking bidders it might later rob.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen concluded that the auctioned pills, talismans, and formation disks likely came from Spirit Transformation cultivators who had lived before the Azure Realm merged.
• Two intact superior-grade spirit artifacts were auctioned to a Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple and the Zhang Family, and Su Jiu noticed that Ding Fen had not disrupted the auction.
• Su Jiu recognized a magic treasure from the Treasure Pavilion and inferred that the Heavenly Dawn Sect and the Rogue Cultivator Alliance had joined forces.
• The auction house began bartering for ten slots individually, and bidders offered resources for the first slot instead of spirit stones.
• Su Jiu noticed Heavenly Dawn Sect disciples studying bidders who offered crafting resources and suspected they were marking potential robbery targets.
• A cultivator won the first slot by offering a middle-grade spirit artifact.

Su Jiu watched the Auction House use secret pressure and shill bidding to drive up the prices of the final Hongsheng Heavenly Road entry slots, while she exchanged a hostile glance with Ding Fen. After the auction, Lou Sheng asked her to return to the Azure Tide Sect, and Su Jiu told him two Yun sisters were injured at an inn.

• Ding Fen spotted Su Jiu and glared at her, but she met his gaze and mouthed a taunting greeting.
• The Auction House attendant secretly urged bidders to raise their offers for the seventh and eighth entry slots, and Su Jiu recognized one cultivator as an Auction House shill.
• Su Jiu explained to Chu Luohen and Qi Song that the Auction House was exploiting its last chance to sell entry slots at inflated prices.
• Lou Sheng waited outside the Auction House and asked Su Jiu to return to the Azure Tide Sect with him.
• Su Jiu agreed to go and told Lou Sheng that two injured female disciples surnamed Yun were recovering at an inn, surprising him.