Chapter Summaries

Qi Song fled from a sixth-tier demon beast alongside a growing crowd of cultivators, who began attacking and sacrificing one another to survive. He protected two Azure Tide Sect junior disciples and promised they would not become the crowd’s next targets, leaving their survival dependent on his protection as the chase continued.

• Qi Song joined a group fleeing a sixth-tier demon beast, and the cultivators attacked one another to avoid falling behind.
• As more cultivators joined the flight, Qi Song saw a Nascent Soul cultivator rob and abandon a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• Qi Song warned two Azure Tide Sect junior disciples that the others would soon prey on Golden Core cultivators, then gave each of them defensive talismans.
• Two Nascent Soul cultivators shoved an early Golden Core cultivator toward the beast, and the cultivator retaliated with a thunderstorm talisman that injured several people.
• When an Azure Tide Sect disciple prayed for Senior Su and Senior Chu to save them, Qi Song assured the disciples that their turn would not come.

As the fleeing cultivators ran low on supplies, Sha Paozi tried to stop the sixth-tier demon beast with his Evergreen Sword, only for the beast to break the sword and kill him. Just as the survivors considered fighting back, a mysterious man in white slew the beast and left with its core, apparently without finding the person he sought.

• Ouyang Yanyu lured the pursuer into the fleeing crowd and taunted Sha Paozi about his Evergreen Sword, prompting him to turn and challenge the demon beast.
• Sha Paozi's sword qi failed to harm the beast; it snapped his sword, and the beast caught and killed him as he fled.
• Several days later, with pills running low, a low-profile Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple urged the others to seize the Azure Tide Sect's supplies, but Ouyang Yanyu exposed his plan to escape.
• Qi Song proposed that the fewer than fifty survivors risk fighting the beast, and the cultivators began disputing who would receive its core.
• A golden light stopped and cut apart the demon beast; a handsome man in white took its core, searched the crowd for someone, and vanished into the clouds.

After Chu rescued the Azure Tide Sect disciples from a sixth-tier demon beast, the group traveled together, relying on his unseen protection. Su Jiu and Fang Xing then uncovered the Rogue Cultivator Alliance’s alliance with the Heavenly Dawn Sect and forced a captured killer to prove his obedience by stabbing his surviving companions.

• The cultivators discussed Chu’s strength and Azure Tide Sect robes, then agreed to travel with the Azure Tide Sect disciples.
• Su Jiu and Fang Xing encountered more demon beasts and rescued Ye Wanqing from Rogue Cultivator Alliance members hunting cultivators from smaller sects.
• Su Jiu learned that the Rogue Cultivator Alliance had agreed to weaken other sects and clans in exchange for a spirit treasure and independence from the Heavenly Dawn Sect.
• Su Jiu refused to spare the surviving attacker and ordered him to stab his wounded companions to prove he would obey.
• The attacker picked up his sword and stabbed his companions as Su Jiu watched.

Su Jiu and her companions encountered again the man Ye Wanqing had persuaded her to spare, now fighting alongside the Rogue Cultivator Alliance and Heavenly Dawn Sect against Lou Sheng and other sect disciples. Su Jiu turned the battle against their enemies, but Ding Fen captured Lou Sheng with a strange powder, leaving the Azure Tide Sect disciples glaring at him.

• After Ye Wanqing stopped Su Jiu from killing him, the man left alive and Su Jiu grew quiet while traveling with Ye Wanqing and Fang Xing.
• Su Jiu, Ye Wanqing, and Fang Xing came across the man attacking disciples led by Lou Sheng alongside the Rogue Cultivator Alliance and Heavenly Dawn Sect.
• Fang Xing found two Fang family members dead, while Su Jiu gave pills to two barely living Azure Tide Sect disciples.
• Lou Sheng called out Ding Fen for hiding the truth about the other Azure Tide Sect, and the man Ye Wanqing had spared urged the attackers to kill everyone.
• Su Jiu joined the fight and killed many of the enemies surrounding Ding Fen, who realized her strength was far greater than he had assumed.
• Ding Fen released red powder into the air Lou Sheng breathed, weakening him until one of Ding Fen's disciples captured him alive.

Su Jiu faced Ding Fen and the Heavenly Dawn Sect after one of their disciples captured Lou Sheng and tried to force her to choose between killing her allies or letting her sect master die. She rescued Lou Sheng with ease and revealed that she had never considered them a real threat.

• The disciple who had once been spared captured Lou Sheng and falsely accused Su Jiu, Ye Wanqing, and their companions of killing his brothers.
• Ye Wanqing challenged the disciple’s lies, but the assembled sects and clans doubted her, while Su Jiu remained silent.
• The disciple threatened to kill Lou Sheng unless Su Jiu killed everyone except the Azure Tide Sect, and Su Jiu asked Ye Wanqing what she would choose.
• As the disciple pressed his dagger to Lou Sheng’s neck, Su Jiu asked Ding Fen where the Inner Region of the Hongsheng Heavenly Road was.
• Su Jiu killed the threatening disciple, rescued Lou Sheng, and passed him to Fang Xing, leaving Ding Fen to realize she had never viewed his side as a genuine opponent.

Su Jiu revealed her Spirit Severing strength, forcing Ding Fen to abandon his threats and try to persuade her not to connect the two worlds. She rejected his ambitions, explaining that the worlds had to be connected for the Heavenly Dao to become complete and the path to ascension to open.

• Su Jiu asked Ye Wanqing whether she had learned her lesson, and Ye Wanqing tearfully acknowledged it.
• Su Jiu demanded that Ding Fen tell her where the Inner Region of the Hongsheng Heavenly Road was, but he offered a pact and the return of what his sect had plundered instead.
• Ding Fen tried to dissuade Su Jiu from connecting the worlds, arguing that it would weaken the Dustless Continent and that she could rule there instead.
• Su Jiu told Ding Fen that without connecting the worlds, the Heavenly Dao would remain incomplete, the Heaven-Connecting Tower would never be found, and ascension would remain impossible.
• Ding Fen realized he had never considered ascension and had only sought to gain power over the Dustless Continent.

Su Jiu warned the gathered cultivators that closing the Hongsheng Heavenly Road could leave their descendants vulnerable to demon beasts, and that the road’s laws were already warping. Her argument persuaded some of Ding Fen’s allies to share what they knew about the route to the Inner Perimeter, which involved a moving lake.

• Su Jiu argued that the Azure Realm’s resources would eventually run out and demon beasts could wipe out its weakened human cultivators, then warned that the Hongsheng Heavenly Road might soon close for good.
• Ding Fen dismissed Su Jiu’s claims as unverifiable speculation, while the Rogue Cultivator Alliance members reconsidered their support for him.
• Lou Sheng challenged the gathered cultivators to speak up, and Ye Wanqing said she remembered her grandfather mentioning the Inner Perimeter.
• Other cultivators explained that the route involved a lake surrounded by lush trees, whose location moved, and that people had entered by jumping into it or disappearing beside it.
• Su Jiu asked whether the historical accounts about the lake were true, and a cultivator confirmed they came from firsthand reports by seniors who had visited the Hongsheng Heavenly Road.

Su Jiu stopped Ding Fen from leaving with the Heavenly Dawn Sect, but he escaped with Chong Mo after a mysterious figure intervened. Meanwhile, Ouyang Yanyu and Qi Song reached the passage to the Hongsheng Heavenly Road’s Inner Region and waited for Su Jiu, while Ding Fen and Chong Mo met nearby to exchange an ancient text for an item.

• Lou Sheng blocked Ding Fen from leaving, and Su Jiu refused his offer of a spirit treasure and ordered the Azure Tide Sect disciples to finish the matter quickly.
• Ding Fen scattered blinding powder and escaped when a mysterious figure carried him away, leaving Su Jiu to follow their trail with her ice spiritual qi.
• The cultivators accompanying Ouyang Yanyu and Qi Song found a lake that served as the passage to the Inner Region, and Ouyang Yanyu chose to wait for Su Jiu before entering.
• Qi Song concealed his group in a formation as Ding Fen and the wounded Chong Mo arrived at the lake.
• Ding Fen accepted a tattered ancient text from Chong Mo, commented on Chong Mo's feelings for Ye Wanqing, and demanded the item they had agreed to exchange.

Ding Fen and Sect Master Jiang each received a portion of the Chaotic Life-Birthing Art from Chong Mo, and Ding Fen’s cultivation of it pushed him toward demonic deviation. As the group confronted Chong Mo’s past, Ouyang Yanyu revealed that True Lord Pinglan had killed the Chong Household’s family head under a pact made between close friends.

• Chong Mo gave Ding Fen a glazed bottle of blood and directed him to cultivate inside the enormous tree, then discarded the bottle and meditated.
• Ouyang Yanyu and Qi Song watched Sect Master Jiang meet Chong Mo in disguise, accept another copy of the Chaotic Life-Birthing Art, and promise Chong Mo the Heavenly Dawn Sect’s succession if he stopped thinking about Ye Wanqing.
• Ding Fen cultivated the art inside the tree, broke through to nascent soul great perfection, and emerged with demonic features, intent on killing Sect Master Jiang.
• Su Jiu, Chu Luohen, Ye Wanqing, and Chong Mo joined the others; Su Jiu explained that Chong Mo had split the art, which originally contained only half a volume.
• Ouyang Yanyu told the Azure Tide Sect disciples that True Lord Pinglan had killed the Chong Household’s family head because they had agreed he would do so if the family head’s actions endangered his lineage.

Ouyang Yanyu revealed the truth behind the Chong Household’s destruction, while Ding Fen confronted Sect Master Jiang over his schemes. As Ding Fen’s cultivation deviation intensified, he fought Sect Master Jiang in a growing demonic frenzy.

• Ouyang Yanyu explained that True Lord Pinglan had tried to save the Chong Household and had devoted himself to raising Chong Mo, while Chong Mo had learned the truth five years earlier.
• Su Jiu concluded that Chong Mo believed the truth, and Ding Fen revealed that he and Sect Master Jiang had come seeking the same thing.
• Ding Fen accused Sect Master Jiang of treating him and Chong Mo as pawns, and Sect Master Jiang attacked him while warning Chong Mo to stay out of the fight.
• Ding Fen withstood Sect Master Jiang’s attacks as black demonic qi gathered around him and his pain faded, driving him into a killing frenzy.
• Sect Master Jiang accused Ding Fen of betraying his master, but Ding Fen had lost his reason and did not respond.

Chong Mo confronted Sect Master Jiang after proving the Kinship Stone had been tampered with and learning Jiang was involved in the past killings. As Chong Mo prepared to kill him, Jiang accused Chong Mo of killing his own benefactor, and Chong Mo revealed the manuals held by Jiang and Ding Fen were genuine halves of the Chong Household's art.

• Sect Master Jiang redirected Ding Fen's attack toward a fifth-tier demon beast, then rested while the two fought.
• Chong Mo returned and rejected Sect Master Jiang's offer to make him Young Sect Master, then tested their blood with a Kinship Stone that showed no reaction.
• Chong Mo showed Sect Master Jiang bamboo slips given to him five years earlier, exposing Jiang's connection to the past crimes.
• Sect Master Jiang recognized that Chong Mo knew the truth and was about to kill him, but accused Chong Mo of killing his own benefactor.
• Chong Mo said he would answer for his past mistakes after dealing with Jiang, then revealed that Jiang and Ding Fen each possessed a genuine half of the Chong Household's manual.

Chong Mo killed Jiang Ji'an after revealing that the Chaotic Life-Birthing Art required a five elements chaos body and its complete method, then explained why he had delayed his revenge. Ding Fen lost control after his cultivation deviation and attacked cultivators until Su Jiu intervened.

• Chong Mo revealed the Chaotic Life-Birthing Art's prerequisites and killed Jiang Ji'an.
• Su Jiu told Ouyang Yanyu that Chong Mo had hidden the method in the secret realm and explained how he had learned of it.
• Ding Fen killed the fifth-tier demon beast and two cultivators, prompting Zhang Bingchun and other nascent soul cultivators to fight him.
• Ouyang Yanyu stopped Lou Sheng from joining the fight, while the cultivators' uncoordinated attacks failed to contain Ding Fen.
• Su Jiu shot a strand of Ice Silk from her wrist when Ding Fen was about to kill someone.

Su Jiu killed Ding Fen, and Chong Mo confronted the Azure Tide Sect disciples over his betrayal before Ye Wanqing stopped him from taking his own life. As the Heavenly Dawn Sect faced the fallout from the deaths of Ding Fen and Sect Master Jiang, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen discovered signs of the inner region’s entrance and prepared to investigate.

• Su Jiu pierced Ding Fen’s dantian and several acupoints with the Ice Silk, killing him in front of the gathered cultivators.
• Chong Mo apologized to Ye Wanqing and offered her his dagger, then tried to stab himself until Ye Wanqing stopped him and told him to leave.
• A Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple discovered that the corpse of Sect Master Jiang had been disguised with a Human-Skin Mask, prompting panic about the sect’s future and calls for it to return what it had stolen.
• Su Jiu noticed ripples spreading across the lake and two cultivators vanishing near the reeds, while Chu Luohen sensed another source of time power.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen identified the lake and reeds as the entrance to the Hongsheng Heavenly Road’s inner region, and Su Jiu told Ye Wanqing’s group to wait while they opened it.

As the Outer Perimeter collapsed and demon beasts converged on the lake, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen entered the passage to the Inner Perimeter. Most of the remaining cultivators followed, but the Outer Perimeter ultimately fell into nothingness.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen noticed the lake reflecting an unfamiliar landscape as spatial disturbances intensified and spiritual qi streamed into the water.
• A water column rose from the lake, revealing mountains and a mysterious palace, while Su Jiu sensed high-tier demon beasts approaching.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen entered the whirlpool, and Azure Tide Sect cultivators followed them into the Inner Perimeter.
• Demon beasts surrounded the remaining cultivators, prompting most of them to jump into the lake; Xiao Fan also entered, recalling a prophecy about a calamity on the Hongsheng Heavenly Road.
• The demon beasts vanished into the lake as the heavens collapsed, the earth caved in, and the Outer Perimeter became nothingness.

Su Jiu led the cultivators away from the lake in the Hongsheng Heavenly Road’s Inner Region, warning that demon beasts would arrive at the landing point and attack them. As they flew toward the palace revealed by the wind spirit, several cultivators chose to leave the group to gather spirit plants, and Su Jiu let them go.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen arrived in the Inner Region alongside Lou Sheng, the Azure Tide Sect disciples, and other cultivators.
• Su Jiu explained that demon beasts fleeing the outer region would land at the same spot and endanger anyone who stayed, then led the group away.
• Su Jiu searched for the palace she had seen in the lake, and the wind spirit returned with information about its location.
• Two disciples from a small sect discussed leaving to gather spirit plants, and Ouyang Yanyu and Su Jiu agreed that they had to make their own choices.
• The two disciples descended to gather resources, and more cultivators left the group over the next hour while Su Jiu continued onward.

Su Jiu led the cultivators toward a palace she had found through her own perceptions, while demon beasts slaughtered many of those left behind. Near the palace, the group found a path paved with spirit stones that could not be pried from the ground.

• Su Jiu told the cultivators she was heading to a palace without knowing whether it connected the two Azure Realms, and many left while others continued following her.
• Chu Luohen sensed that the palace was connected to the Hongsheng Heavenly Road and confirmed that he could feel the power of the world nearby.
• Demon beasts arrived and attacked cultivators near the starting point, killing nearly half of those who had not followed Su Jiu.
• Su Jiu and her group approached the palace and found a lawn with a pebble path that became paved with five-element spirit stones.
• A small-sect disciple tried to pry up a spirit stone with his dagger, but the stone stayed fixed and the dagger was damaged; Su Jiu and Chu Luohen noticed his attempt.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen activated two pillars around the mysterious Palace, revealing a Hidden Star Map containing the power of laws. Su Jiu warned the other cultivators about its dangers, but after they suspected her of withholding benefits, one cultivator touched a pillar anyway.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen explored separate White Jade Stone Pillars and channeled spiritual qi into them, forming starry maps on their surfaces.
• Su Jiu explained that the pillars held a Hidden Star Map and warned cultivators below the nascent soul realm or with spirit root purity below eighty percent not to touch them.
• A cultivator challenged Su Jiu's knowledge and suggested she might be keeping the benefits for herself, so Su Jiu stopped explaining and stepped aside.
• The first challenger pressed his hand to a pillar, saw starlight flow into his body, and gave Su Jiu a smug look.

After a cultivator was injured trying to activate the White Jade Stone Pillar, Su Jiu’s companions rebuked the onlookers for pressuring her to help them. A timid female cultivator then tried the pillar under her clan head’s orders, and a fight broke out while she struggled to activate it.

• A man’s attempt to touch the White Jade Stone Pillar failed, injuring his sea of consciousness and leaving the gathered cultivators afraid to try.
• Lou Sheng challenged the onlookers to test the pillar, while Ouyang Yanyu and Ye Wanqing defended Su Jiu against demands that she help everyone.
• A female cultivator with three spirit roots, one of them eighty percent wood, asked Su Jiu whether she could activate the pillar, and Su Jiu warned her that she lacked a single wood spirit root.
• The female cultivator’s clan head ordered her to proceed, and the pillar turned gray as she grew pale and began bleeding.
• The clan head mocked women when the activation stalled, provoking a female cultivator to attack him and several other women to interfere; the rogue cultivator began to lose ground.

Su Jiu and the Azure Tide Sect disciples sheltered aboard a Small Flying Boat while demon beasts overran the palace, as the other cultivators struggled outside. Xiao Fan reached Su Jiu to beg for help, but her detached expression left him speechless.

• A covert expert helped the female cultivator wound the middle-aged man, but the fight stopped when the White Jade Stone Pillars turned white again.
• Fifth tier demon beasts entered, so Su Jiu led the Azure Tide Sect disciples aboard a Small Flying Boat and Chu Luohen deployed another fifth tier Formation Disk.
• The middle-aged man accused Su Jiu of selfishness, and she told him that he had no value to her.
• Cultivators tried to lure demon beasts toward the Flying Boat, but the beasts avoided it and attacked people outside as their numbers grew.
• Xiao Fan reached Su Jiu while supporting his senior brother and called for help, but her cold expression silenced him.

Su Jiu let cultivators board the flying boat in exchange for their resources, then joined Chu Luohen in killing the sixth-tier demon beasts threatening them. After several people apologized for the White Jade Stone Pillars incident, Ouyang Yanyu asked Su Jiu about her word-spirit contract and the Azure Realm.

• Xiao Fan brought his senior brother inside the barrier, and Su Jiu agreed to let Zhang Bingchun and the Zhang Family board in exchange for all their collected resources.
• The Fang Family and several other groups traded their supplies for entry, while Su Jiu barred the sect whose members had insulted her and rejected people who tried to cheat her.
• When sixth-tier demon beasts appeared, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen left the flying boat and killed them within a dozen breaths.
• Lou Sheng learned that Su Jiu had fought the sixth-tier beasts to protect the formation, not to intimidate the other cultivators.
• Several cultivators apologized to Su Jiu for the White Jade Stone Pillars incident, and Ouyang Yanyu asked about Su Jiu's word-spirit contract and the Azure Realm.