Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu entered the Black Market with Qin Ming, Liu Zhiyan, and Yun Huanling, learning that it occupied overlapping barriers and catered to cultivators of many kinds. After buying invitation letters for the Dawn City Auction, she witnessed Zhou Haotian seize a Five-Flavor Pill from a distressed relative, who feared he would not find another in time to save his father.

• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling met Liu Zhiyan and Qin Ming at the Black Market entrance and put on masks that blocked divine sense.
• Su Jiu entered the Black Market, sensed its composite barrier, and learned that it connected to other markets and carried its own rules.
• Qin Ming bought two Dawn City Auction invitation letters for ten thousand spirit stones each.
• Su Jiu browsed stalls selling goods for many kinds of cultivators and avoided those dealing in demonic-cultivator items.
• Zhou Haotian took a Five-Flavor Pill from a distressed relative, then left as red-masked enforcers warned the pair not to fight in the Market.

After returning from the Black Market, Su Jiu noticed Yun Huanling using the jade bracelet to make the Compass point toward the Concealment Stone Vein, but let him keep his secret. At the auction, she recognized the man who had stolen her Storage Bag and was surprised by how much bidders paid for a second-tier Formation Disk.

• Yun Huanling drew spiritual energy from the jade bracelet and used the Compass to locate the Concealment Stone Vein while Su Jiu watched without confronting him.
• Two days later, Su Jiu and her companions joined the queue for the auction, where Qin Ming resisted the temptation to sell Liu Zhiyan's invitation for spirit stones.
• Su Jiu recognized Zhou Haotian and the young man from the Black Market, realizing the young man was the person who had posed as a bandit and stolen her Storage Bag.
• The auction began with a second-tier Slaughtering Formation Disk, and Su Jiu was astonished when bidders offered more than two thousand spirit stones for it.

At the Dawn City auction, Qin Ming and a middle-aged cultivator drove the price of the Dragon Whisker Fruit to one million Spirit Stones. Su Jiu stepped in with a higher bid, and the middle-aged man raised the price again, leaving the auction’s outcome unresolved.

• The Dragon Whisker Fruit appeared at auction, and Qin Ming prepared to bid with the Spirit Stones he had borrowed from Su Jiu.
• Qin Ming and a middle-aged cultivator competed for the fruit, pushing the price to five hundred thousand Spirit Stones.
• Qin Ming offered the middle-aged man a Tier Six Pill to give up the fruit, but the man refused and kept bidding.
• Qin Ming bid one million Spirit Stones, then Su Jiu raised the offer to one million and ten thousand.
• The middle-aged man bid one million and thirty thousand, and Su Jiu congratulated him without revealing her intentions.

Su Jiu exposed a cultivator who tried to buy his own Dragon Whisker Fruit to manipulate the auction, then gave Qin Ming a Great Restoration Pill. When Five-Flavor Pills appeared, she outbid Zhou Haotian and won them, leaving Zhou Qingshu unable to obtain the medicine he sought for the ailing City Lord.

• The auction steward revealed that the Dragon Whisker Fruit's seller had bid on his own item and owed a large fee, then had him dragged backstage when he could not pay.
• Su Jiu refused to buy the fruit from the seller, and Qin Ming realized she had known who owned it.
• Su Jiu gave Qin Ming a Great Restoration Pill, and he agreed to repay her with three superior-grade spirit stones and his life.
• Zhou Haotian outbid Zhou Qingshu for a bottle of Five-Flavor Pills, while the crowd discussed the City Lord's illness and Zhou Bo's control of the City Lord's Residence.
• Su Jiu bid six hundred thousand spirit stones for the Five-Flavor Pills and won them after Zhou Haotian withdrew.

Su Jiu and her companions watched the auction while an auction-house official recognized her ring as linked to Chu Mojin and suspected she was his disciple. When a black stone from a Snow Beast’s lair appeared, the markings at the corner of Su Jiu’s eye began to heat beneath her concealment, leaving her anxious that her identity might be exposed.

• Zhou Haotian left the auction after achieving his aim, while Zhou Qingshu watched the girl who had won the Five-Flavor Pill and brooded over his lineage’s troubles.
• A black-robed auction-house official inferred that Su Jiu led her group and recognized the formation pattern on her ring as resembling Chu Mojin’s, concluding she was likely his ice-root disciple.
• Su Jiu sensed someone monitoring the auction hall, and Yun Huanling asked what had caught her attention.
• The auction presented a pitch-black stone said to have come from a Snow Beast’s lair, but the crowd doubted it had any use.
• The markings at the corner of Su Jiu’s left eye grew hot, and she checked that her Lily-of-the-Valley Warm Jade still concealed them as Yun Huanling watched her thoughtfully.

Su Jiu won the Snow Beast Companion Stone at auction and learned that Zhou Qingshu needed a Five-Flavor Pill to save his father. She agreed to give him one on the condition that he take her to see the City Lord, whose five senses had vanished after visiting the Concealment Stone Vein.

• Su Jiu followed the Green Bud’s signal and bought the Snow Beast Companion Stone for one hundred thousand spirit stones, drawing ridicule from the audience.
• Qin Ming gave Su Jiu a Jade Token for entering the Jade Sword Sect, then left with Liu Zhiyan after thanking her for saving his life.
• Several men planned to rob Su Jiu outside the city, but abandoned the scheme when they recognized Zhou Qingshu as the Young City Lord.
• Zhou Qingshu returned Su Jiu’s Storage Bag and asked her to part with a Five-Flavor Pill to save his ailing father.
• Su Jiu agreed to give Zhou Qingshu a Five-Flavor Pill if he took her to see the City Lord, and he explained that his father had lost all five senses after visiting the Concealment Stone Vein.

Su Jiu returned Zhou Qingshu’s Storage Bag and examined the old City Lord after Zhou Qingshu gave him the Five-Flavor Pill. Zhou Haotian learned that Zhou Qingshu had brought new people to the City Lord’s Residence and rushed there.

• Su Jiu returned Zhou Qingshu’s Storage Bag, recovered from the bandits she had killed, and declined his offer of payment.
• Su Jiu examined the old City Lord and found his sea of consciousness sealed, confirming that he needed the Five-Flavor Pill.
• Zhou Qingshu fed the Five-Flavor Pill to his father.
• Zhou Haotian’s drinking companions mocked Zhou Qingshu and mentioned that he had gone to the City Lord’s Residence with a young girl and a young man.
• Zhou Haotian seized one companion, learned when Zhou Qingshu had arrived, and raced to the City Lord’s Residence.
• After Zhou Haotian left, his companions discussed whether his household could truly take control.

Zhou Haotian rushed to tell Zhou Bo that Zhou Qingshu had found a Five-Flavor Pill, but Zhou Bo’s affair with a maid led his wife to dissolve their Dao Companion Contract before he learned the news. Zhou Bo hurried to Zhou Jin’s courtyard, where Zhou Jin reclaimed the City Lord’s Command Token and forced him back with spiritual pressure.

• Zhou Haotian told his mother that Zhou Qingshu had found a Five-Flavor Pill, and she went with him to find Zhou Bo.
• Zhou Haotian and his mother discovered Zhou Bo with a maid, and the couple argued before dissolving their Dao Companion Contract.
• Zhou Bo handed over his Storage Rings, while his former wife left and told Zhou Haotian to meet her at the City Gate if he wanted to go with her.
• After Zhou Haotian told him about the Five-Flavor Pill, Zhou Bo rushed to Zhou Jin’s courtyard with Zhou Haotian and the maid.
• Zhou Jin reclaimed the City Lord’s Command Token and used spiritual pressure to stop Zhou Bo from approaching.

Zhou Jin punished Zhou Bo and Zhou Haotian for their abuse of Qingshu and thanked Su Jiu for restoring his senses. He explained that a strange being in the Concealment Stone Vein had caused his condition, and Su Jiu asked to inspect it.

• Zhou Haotian admitted his wrongs, swore never to return to Dawn City, and Zhou Jin struck him down from the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Qi Refining Period before letting him leave.
• Zhou Haotian found his mother outside the city gates, and they left together.
• Zhou Jin expelled the maid and sent Zhou Bo to prison for his actions during Zhou Jin's absence.
• Zhou Jin offered Su Jiu three requests and gave her a Storage Bag, but Su Jiu asked what had caused him to lose his five senses.
• Zhou Jin described a concealment stone that had absorbed vital essence, awakened Innate Arts, and attacked his sea of consciousness; Su Jiu suspected it was a Stone Spirit and asked to see it.

Yun Huanling discovered that Senior Brother Tian’s remains were likely in the Concealment Stone Vein, while Su Jiu absorbed energy from the black stone and strengthened her cultivation and divine sense. At the vein, Su Jiu exposed the steward’s embezzlement of compensation meant for miners’ families, and Zhou Jin put Zhou Qingshu in charge of the mine.

• Yun Huanling used the Nine-Bend Compass and Senior Brother Tian’s Storage Bracelet to locate his remains to the south, near the Concealment Stone Vein.
• Su Jiu used her divine sense to draw warm energy from the black stone, transforming it and strengthening her Flower Bud, cultivation, and divine sense.
• An old man in the Heavenly Secret Sect blamed Su Jiu for reigniting a Fate Star that he believed should have fallen.
• At the Concealment Stone Vein, Su Jiu challenged a guard’s claims about compensating families of miners who had died.
• Zhou Jin ordered the steward’s room searched and discovered a hidden ledger and stolen spirit stones.
• Zhou Jin silenced and removed the steward, ordered the spirit stones distributed to the bereaved families, and put Zhou Qingshu in charge of the vein.

Su Jiu took the demonic Stone Spirit from Zhou Jin while Yun Huanling recovered his dead senior brother’s remains. As they continued their journey, Yun Huanling revealed that he refused to accept fate, and Su Jiu affirmed that she would defy the Heavenly Dao and choose her own destiny.

• Su Jiu accepted the Stone Spirit from Zhou Jin and planned to purge its demonic nature before allowing it to acknowledge her as its master.
• Yun Huanling followed his Compass to find his senior brother’s skeletal remains and gathered the bones into a jade box.
• Su Jiu told Zhou Jin that she belonged to the Azure Tide Sect and Yun Huanling to the Heavenly Secret Sect, then the pair left Dawn City.
• Zhou Qingshu told Zhou Jin he wanted to join a sect and chose Su Jiu’s Azure Tide Sect; his father agreed.
• Yun Huanling told Su Jiu that the jade bracelet had belonged to Senior Brother Tian, whose death he refused to accept as fate.
• Su Jiu agreed that she would not let the Heavenly Dao control her destiny, and Yun Huanling recognized a kindred spirit in her.

Su Jiu rescued Chen Ya from a Demon Beast and learned that she wanted to cultivate so she could take revenge on the woman who had ruined her life. Yun Huanling divined Chen Ya’s fate and darkened as he began to understand what had happened to her.

• Su Jiu received messages about her companions’ cultivation progress and learned that Bai Su had broken the restriction True Person Yi Xiu placed on her.
• Su Jiu trained Yun Huanling to fight Demon Beasts until a distant cry for help drew them away.
• Su Jiu killed the Demon Beast attacking Chen Ya and freed her from a Binding Talisman.
• Chen Ya asked Su Jiu to take her as a disciple, but Su Jiu refused and suggested she seek cultivation opportunities in a city.
• Chen Ya said she wanted to cultivate to kill the adulterous pair who had betrayed her, and Yun Huanling darkened as he divined her fate.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling gave Chen Ya cultivation manuals after she insisted on seeking revenge, then learned that her village had attracted strangers and headed there with her. On the way, Chen Ya recounted how her husband and Xu Hui betrayed her and tried to kill her for her jade pendant.

• Yun Huanling divined that Chen Ya had been betrayed by her husband and close friend and had been fated to die, but her future became unclear after Su Jiu saved her.
• Chen Ya rejected their warnings about the dangers of cultivation and her age, and Su Jiu gave her two basic Qi Induction manuals.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling sensed spiritual energy mixed with demonic qi near Chen Ya’s village and asked her to lead them there.
• Chen Ya explained that Xu Hui, whom she had rescued from the river, gave her husband a cultivation manual while he refused to let Chen Ya cultivate.
• Chen Ya discovered her husband and Xu Hui together, and her husband later lured her into a grove, where Xu Hui took her mother’s jade pendant before they left her to die.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling arrived in Millet Village, where they found villagers preparing to sacrifice a girl to the River God. As Old Liu tried to buy a replacement for his daughter, the village chief failed to stop villagers from considering selling their own girls, leaving the village on the verge of chaos.

• Chen Ya parted from Su Jiu and Yun Huanling at the entrance to Millet Village, intending to stay with her grandmother and expose the pair who had wronged her.
• Su Jiu noticed that demonic qi and spiritual qi were mingled throughout Millet Village, making cultivation dangerous for Dao cultivators.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling came upon Old Liu, his mother, and his daughter pleading with the villagers to spare the girl chosen as the River God sacrifice.
• Old Liu offered his possessions to buy another girl as a replacement, and several villagers considered selling their daughters or sisters.
• The village chief forbade the exchange, but the villagers questioned his motives until he gave up trying to control them.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling learned that Millet Village sacrificed girls to a river monster, then confronted Xu Hui, a cultivator who had tried to drive them away. Xu Hui recognized Su Jiu as her superior after her attack was reflected, while her history revealed she had concealed the river’s demonic danger and stolen Chen Ya’s Demon-Warding Jade.

• A villager told Su Jiu and Yun Huanling that Millet Village sacrificed girls under fifteen every three years to prevent the River God from flooding the village.
• The villager mentioned that Xu Hui had arrived two years earlier after Chen Ya rescued her from the river, and Xu Hui soon appeared with Wang Donggou.
• Xu Hui ordered Su Jiu and Yun Huanling to leave, then attacked Su Jiu when she challenged Xu Hui’s authority.
• Su Jiu reflected Xu Hui’s spiritual-qi attack, injuring her, and Xu Hui hastily addressed Su Jiu as a senior.
• Xu Hui’s past revealed that she had discovered the river’s demonic qi, refused the village chief’s request to kill the monster, and coveted Chen Ya’s Demon-Warding Jade.

Su Jiu exposed Xu Hui's age and took back the Demon-Warding Jade that Xu Hui had stolen from Chen Ya. Meanwhile, Yaya resisted her relatives' attempt to trade her into marriage, and her grandparents worried about what would happen to her.

• Su Jiu revealed that Xu Hui was fifty and only at the fourth Qi Refining layer, and Xu Hui's attacks rebounded against her twice.
• Su Jiu took Xu Hui's Demon-Warding Jade, and Wang Donggou confirmed that Chen Ya had originally owned it.
• Su Jiu defeated Xu Hui with ice spiritual qi and left with the jade while Xu Hui and Wang Donggou stayed silent.
• Yaya's second aunt tried to arrange her marriage to a Young Master Li, but Yaya said she wanted to stay with her grandparents.
• Yaya's grandmother grew suspicious of her daughter-in-law's intentions and worried that she would not be alive much longer to protect Yaya.

After Chen Ya returned home, Wang Donggou and Xu Hui argued over the consequences of their actions, while Xu Hui’s injuries left her weakened. Su Jiu and Yun Huanling watched Yaya’s relatives prepare to sell her to the Liu Household, unable to intervene, and Su Jiu said that evil mortals would eventually face punishment.

• Village women gossiped about Chen Ya’s return and Xu Hui’s injuries, while Wang Donggou confronted Xu Hui about the scandal and suggested leaving the village.
• Xu Hui reminded Wang Donggou that she had taught him everything he knew, and he left without answering.
• Yaya refused to go with her relatives to the Liu Household, so they slapped her unconscious and planned to deliver her there anyway.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling watched Yaya’s relatives from nearby but did not intervene because cultivators could not casually interfere in mortal affairs.
• Yun Huanling said the wicked would be dealt with in time, and Su Jiu revealed her anger at what Yaya’s relatives had done.

As Millet Village prepared for the sacrifice, Su Jiu recognized how Old Liu was using the villagers’ greed to find a substitute for his daughter. She returned Chen Ya’s Demon-Warding Jade and explained its protection against demonic qi, while Yun Huanling learned that Su Jiu was naturally immune to it.

• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling watched villagers outside the Liu Household bargain to sell their daughters, and Su Jiu realized Old Liu was exploiting their greed to save his own daughter.
• Chen Ya gave up on cultivating after failing to sense spiritual qi and began helping her family.
• Su Jiu returned Chen Ya’s jade pendant and identified it as Demon-Warding Jade that could keep demonic qi from entering a cultivator’s body.
• Su Jiu explained that the water monster had spread demonic qi through Millet Village and that cultivators left because the area was dangerous for cultivation.
• Yun Huanling asked whether Su Jiu had a treasure that warded off demonic qi, and she said her innate constitution served that purpose.

On the eve of the River God Festival, Su Jiu secretly healed and protected Yaya, then asked her to help ensure the villagers would not interfere while she confronted the river monster. Wang Donggou learned that Su Jiu planned to kill the beast, and Xu Hui went to challenge the plan despite fearing Su Jiu might be a powerful cultivator.

• Su Jiu visited Yaya in the Liu Household's woodshed, used a talisman to protect her, and gave her part of a Hemostatic Pill to heal her wounds.
• Su Jiu told Yaya she would try to kill the river monster and instructed her before vanishing; Yaya slept peacefully for the first time in days.
• Xu Hui recovered enough to leave bed but found her cultivation sluggish and her appearance aging, while Wang Donggou resented having to handle the household chores.
• Wang Donggou followed Su Jiu and learned she had asked the village chief for the villagers' cooperation in killing the river monster.
• Wang Donggou told Xu Hui about Su Jiu's plan, and Xu Hui insisted Su Jiu could not be powerful before heading to confront the village chief.

Su Jiu faced Xu Hui’s attempt to turn the villagers against her plan to kill the River God and revealed her cultivation to prove she could handle the monster. The villagers fell silent and Xu Hui backed down, but she watched Su Jiu leave with a bloodied, furious expression.

• Xu Hui rushed to the village chief’s house and accused Su Jiu of risking the villagers’ lives to gain fame by trying to kill the River God.
• The villagers argued over whether Su Jiu should confront the monster, while Su Jiu warned that letting it keep consuming offerings would endanger future generations.
• Xu Hui mocked Su Jiu’s age and claimed she lacked the cultivation needed to defeat the River God.
• Su Jiu removed the Concealment Stone’s concealment and released her cultivation, forcing Wang Donggou and Xu Hui to kneel under the pressure.
• Xu Hui denied having any doubts after Su Jiu withdrew her aura, then watched Su Jiu and her companions leave with bloodied palms.