Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu and her companions encountered disciples of the Vast Righteousness Sect, and Feng Qi introduced her by name after one senior brother suspected she might be the long-missing cultivator rumored to be dead. Her identity shocked the gathered crowd, though her youthful bone age left some doubting the rumors.

• A senior brother of the Vast Righteousness Sect forced his junior disciple to apologize to a man he had threatened for insulting Su Jiu.
• The senior brother thanked Su Jiu for preventing the conflict from escalating, then asked Feng Qi and the others why they had come to the Windforest Star River.
• Feng Qi said the group had accompanied Su Jiu because she was curious about the secret realm, while everyone concealed what they knew about the Heavenly Music Pavilion disciple.
• Suspecting Su Jiu might be the woman believed dead for more than fifty years, the senior brother asked her name, and Feng Qi introduced her as Su Jiu.
• The Vast Righteousness Sect disciples and nearby bystanders reacted with shock, while one cultivator questioned the identification because Su Jiu's bone age was only fifty-five.
• A cultivator recounted Su Jiu's legendary talent, powerful friends, treasures, and special physique, but his companions dismissed the claims as rumors.

Su Jiu and her companions tried to enter Windforest Star River to search for a female cultivator, but the Vast Righteousness Sect’s Senior Brother blocked them and pressed them to sign liability pledges. Su Jiu refused and chose to wait outside, leaving them to hope the woman would emerge before the sect’s month-long vigil ended.

• The Vast Righteousness Sect’s Senior Brother warned Su Jiu and her companions that Windforest Star River was dangerous and tried to persuade them not to enter.
• Su Jiu questioned why the Vast Righteousness Sect was stopping them, while Yun Chao pointed out that the sect’s own people had failed to rescue those already inside.
• The Senior Brother presented five liability pledges, but Su Jiu tore them up and sat down rather than sign.
• Su Jiu reasoned that the Vast Righteousness Sect might make trouble for them inside, so she decided to wait outside and watch for the female cultivator.
• A nearby disciple told Yun Huanling that the Vast Righteousness Sect guarded the entrance for a month whenever one of its seniors fell in the secret realm.

The Vast Righteousness Sect’s Shadow Hall punished a disciple for attacking a passerby and learned that Su Jiu had returned alive. Meanwhile, Luo Ge was shunned by her sect and began considering how to stop waiting helplessly for trouble.

• A half-masked man ordered fifty strokes for the disciple who attacked a passerby and twenty for Number Three, blaming them for exposing the Shadow Hall’s actions.
• After Number Three reported Su Jiu’s return, the half-masked man laughed, predicted that chaos was near, and told the disciples to leave her alone for now.
• A figure flashed past the Shadow Hall entrance, and the half-masked man watched with a strange smile.
• The Vast Righteousness Sect’s cultivators focused on the Windforest Star River, while elders took Wenren Jing back to Wenren Manor and left Luo Ge alone.
• Luo Ge was shunned by her fellow disciples, blamed Su Jiu for her troubles, and decided she could no longer wait passively.

Luo Ge learned that Su Jiu was waiting to enter the Windforest Star River and decided to exploit its dangerous period to harm her. At the entrance, Luo Ge served Jade Moonflower cakes to the gathered cultivators, while Su Jiu silently objected to their assumptions about wealthy Personal Disciples.

• Luo Ge overheard a hidden hall conversation and learned that Su Jiu had gone to the entrance of the Windforest Star River.
• Luo Ge decided to use the Star River’s dangerous period to put Su Jiu at risk, then secretly placed a Sound-Mimicking Talisman near the entrance.
• Luo Ge arrived at the entrance and faced gossip from the gathered cultivators about her status and likely punishment.
• Luo Ge presented more than a dozen plates of Jade Moonflower cakes, prompting astonishment and complaints about their cost.
• Su Jiu thought of a poor Personal Disciple and his struggling sect, while Qin Ming sneezed during a spar with Liu Zhiyan.

Luo Ge used jade moonflower pastries and a modified Clear Heart Melody to incapacitate the cultivators around her, then approached the unconscious Su Jiu with a dagger. The music suddenly stopped and injured Luo Ge before she could harm Su Jiu.

• Luo Ge offered jade moonflower pastries to the Vast Righteousness Sect disciples as an apology, and they accepted them under pressure.
• When a Clear Heart Melody began, Su Jiu warned her companions to seal their divine senses and sent a wind spirit to find its source.
• Cultivators fell unconscious one after another, including Gu Ningyun, Su Jiu, and eventually the Vast Righteousness Sect disciples.
• Luo Ge awoke, revealed that the jade moonflowers and Clear Heart Melody together caused dizziness, and moved to cut Su Jiu's face with a dagger.
• The melody stopped abruptly, causing Luo Ge to spit blood and collapse in pain before she could strike Su Jiu.

After Luo Ge sent Su Jiu and the others into the Windforest Star River Secret Realm, Su Jiu regrouped with her companions and searched for Gu Ningyun. The wind spirit found its abilities suppressed inside the realm, and the group discovered a strange cylinder marked with eighteen symbols as Gu Ningyun woke.

• Luo Ge concealed herself and sent Su Jiu and the fake corpses through the Secret Realm entrance before withdrawing.
• Su Jiu landed inside the realm with Yun Chao, Yun Huanling, and Feng Qi, then found Gu Ningyun and gave her a pill.
• Su Jiu asked the wind spirit to track the female cultivator, but it reported that a special power prevented it from communicating with the plants and wind.
• The Snow Sprite explained that the realm naturally suppressed spirits, though it could still handle opponents below the Spirit Transformation Stage.
• Yun Huanling found a slanted cylindrical rock divided into eighteen sections, each marked with an unusual symbol or character.
• Gu Ningyun woke and thanked Su Jiu for helping her, admitting that she had underestimated music cultivators.

Su Jiu connected a symbol on the strange cylinder to a mural she had encountered in the Zen Sound Temple Secret Realm, prompting Feng Qi to record it for the Enforcement Hall. After Su Jiu and the others left, a boy broke the formation protecting the unconscious cultivators and set them at risk.

• Su Jiu told Feng Qi that a symbol on the cylinder resembled one she had seen in a mural that pulled her divine sense into it.
• Feng Qi recorded the cylinder and said the Enforcement Hall Hall Master would have to investigate it.
• Su Jiu enclosed the unconscious cultivators in a Defensive Formation before she and the others departed.
• A boy woke among the cultivators and broke the formation with black energy.
• A Hei warned the boy that their deaths would bring karmic cause and effect, but the boy laughed and said Su Jiu was interesting.

Su Jiu reunited with Yun Huanling and the others, and they discussed their growing distance as they traveled through a scorching desert. She explained how she had spent decades unconscious in a palace and advanced to the Out-of-Body Middle Stage in a mysterious spring, leaving Feng Qi suspicious and concerned about her health.

• Su Jiu agreed with Gu Ningyun that the Vast Righteousness Sect's long guardianship of the Windforest Star River gave it tacit jurisdiction, despite the river not belonging to the sect.
• Yun Huanling blushed when Su Jiu looked at him, then stammered that she had gotten prettier; Gu Ningyun recognized his feelings, while Feng Qi watched him warily.
• The group entered a hot, sandy stretch, and Su Jiu gave each companion an Ice-Cage Flower to cool them down, assuring them it was harmless unless they absorbed its medicinal effects.
• Su Jiu told Yun Chao that she had awakened in an empty palace after decades unconscious and had advanced to the Out-of-Body Middle Stage by soaking in a spring for five years.
• Feng Qi recorded Su Jiu's account on a Jade Slip and planned to report it to Xia Jue, while considering having a healing cultivator examine her.

Chu Luohen received Su Jiu’s message that she had returned safely and sent her a brief reply asking where she was. A message from Su Jiu also arrived during a Heavenly Origin Hall meeting, where Su Mianmian recognized its ice spiritual qi and rejoiced.

• Chu Luohen read through Chu Mojin’s messages and dwelled on his unresolved feelings and years of fruitless searching for Su Jiu.
• Chu Luohen received Su Jiu’s message saying she was back and safe, then sent her a talisman asking, “Where are you?”
• The Scarless Sword Spirit urged Chu Luohen to stop sending talismans and wait for Su Jiu to arrive, and he put the messages away.
• A Message Talisman from Su Jiu arrived during a meeting in the Heavenly Origin Hall, and Ning Hai handed it to Hong Ling.
• Su Mianmian recognized the ice spiritual qi in Su Jiu’s message and rejoiced, as did Jin Chen.

Jin Chen and Su Mianmian anticipated Su Jiu’s return and their long-delayed wedding as the Azure Tide Sect adjusted to new elders. The new Grand Elder’s dislike of Su Jiu and Ice Veil Peak deepened as he recalled his first, awkward encounter with Chu Luohen.

• Jin Chen recalled spending fifty years in the Enforcement Hall searching for Su Jiu so he could marry Su Mianmian, and he was relieved when Su Jiu finally sent word to the sect.
• Su Mianmian and Jin Chen exchanged shy smiles over the message, while Hong Ling realized her disciple was likely about to leave.
• The Fourth Elder never returned, and after the Grand Elder and Third Elder advanced to Spirit Severing Stage and entered Cloudmist Peak, the sect appointed replacements to the vacant elder positions.
• The Grand Elder questioned whether the message came from Su Jiu and privately dismissed her fame and the attention Xia Jue and Ning Hai gave her.
• The Grand Elder recalled how Chu Luohen had once ignored him, prompting him to stop Chu Luohen and demand to know which peak he belonged to.

After Chu Luohen rebuffed the Grand Elder, the Grand Elder investigated Ice Veil Peak and Su Jiu, realizing how influential she was and abandoning his effort to challenge the peak’s privileges. At a gathering where the elders discussed Su Jiu, he introduced his own personal disciple, a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator, leaving the others puzzled.

• Chu Luohen reflected the Grand Elder’s divine sense attack back at him, injuring him and prompting him to investigate Chu Luohen and Ice Veil Peak.
• The Grand Elder secretly tried to build support for changing Ice Veil Peak’s privileges, but Hong Ling and Long Aotian distanced themselves from him.
• The Grand Elder discovered Su Jiu’s extensive connections and contributions to the sect, then decided he could not oppose her or Ice Veil Peak on his own.
• The Grand Elder stopped visiting most elders and met mainly with the Third Elder and Fourth Elder.
• During a discussion about Su Jiu, the Grand Elder announced that he had taken a personal disciple with a single metal spirit root.
• The Grand Elder summoned his disciple, who appeared as a half-step Nascent Soul cultivator, puzzling the Sect Master and the other elders.

The Grand Elder introduced A Qi, a former member of the disbanded Flower Spirit Sect, as his personal disciple after discovering his exceptional metal single spirit root. The Azure Tide Sect's leaders remained wary of the newcomer, while Hong Ling explained to Su Mianmian how the Grand Elder had left his former disciples behind.

• The Grand Elder said A Qi was his distant nephew, had belonged to the Flower Spirit Sect, and possessed a metal single spirit root with eighty percent purity.
• Hong Ling reminded the Grand Elder that A Qi would not take part in the Azure Tide Sect's internal affairs, and A Qi said he would never regret choosing his path to immortality.
• Ning Hai sent A Qi away without giving him a congratulatory gift, leaving the Grand Elder visibly uncomfortable.
• Su Mianmian asked why the Grand Elder had introduced A Qi publicly, and Hong Ling explained that he had promoted his new disciple while leaving his former disciples as ordinary inner gate disciples.
• Hong Ling told Su Mianmian that the Third Elder and Fourth Elder had kept their former disciples close without openly naming them personal disciples.

Su Jiu and her companions ventured deeper into the woods, where Yun Huanling’s divination revealed that the yin-shrouded area was an enormous land of blessings. A corpse puppet attacked them, and Yun Huanling began using a formation to fight it as Su Jiu watched.

• Su Jiu and her companions noticed the growing yin qi and silence in the woods as they traveled farther.
• Yun Huanling used his Nine-Bend Compass and divination to conclude that the area was an enormous land of blessings despite its dense yin qi.
• A corpse puppet charged at the group, and Su Jiu recognized that it may have broken free from Gu Ningyun’s martial uncle’s control.
• The corpse puppet repeatedly targeted Yun Huanling, who dodged its attacks while Su Jiu let him handle the fight to improve his strength.
• Gu Ningyun doubted that her meticulous martial uncle had raised the corpse puppet so recklessly, and Su Jiu suggested someone else might be involved.
• Yun Huanling stopped merely dodging and began constructing a formation with the plants and trees around him.

Yun Huanling’s array weakened the corpse puppet until an outside force strengthened it and broke the barrier, but Su Jiu killed it with the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword. The next morning, the corpse puppet’s body had vanished, leaving black stains and purple butterflies that Su Jiu and Feng Qi found suspicious.

• Yun Huanling trapped the corpse puppet in an array that drained its yin qi and death qi, but its eyes turned red and its strength increased, cracking the barrier.
• Su Jiu summoned the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword and split the corpse puppet in two with one stroke.
• Yun Chao touched Su Jiu’s sword, suffered a spreading cold injury, and recovered after Su Jiu gave him a pill.
• Feng Qi revealed that the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword had been forged as a supreme-grade spirit treasure, surprising Yun Chao, Gu Ningyun, and Yun Huanling.
• The group found the corpse puppet’s body missing the next morning, with two black stains and several purple butterflies left behind.

Su Jiu and the others traced the Yin-Devouring Butterflies to a tomb that had turned a Fortune Blessing Land into an Extreme Yin Land, possibly through a Heretical Cultivator’s actions. They discovered the tomb’s gravestone concealed a Written Formation that served as its entrance, but forcing it open would collapse the tomb.

• Little Pearl reminded Su Jiu about Yin-Devouring Butterflies, and Su Jiu explained that their presence indicated an Extreme Yin Land and likely a tomb.
• Yun Huanling concluded that a mutation had turned the Fortune Blessing Land into an Extreme Yin Land, and he suggested a Heretical Cultivator might have gathered fortune and yin qi or created the Corpse Puppet.
• Su Jiu explained that Yin-Devouring Butterflies had restored the Corpse Puppet’s strength by transferring yin qi to it, and Gu Ningyun wondered whether the butterflies were connected to her Martial Uncle.
• The group searched the tomb’s gravestone for an entrance, and Su Jiu revealed Ancient Script and a hidden symbol by sweeping spiritual qi across it.
• Su Jiu explained that the words formed a formation linked to the whole tomb, warning Yun Chao that breaking it by force would make the tomb collapse.
• Yun Huanling recognized the words as a Written Formation and admired the talent required to create one.

Su Jiu identified the tomb’s formation as the Seven Baleful Spirits Soul-Locking Formation and warned that the powerful soul inside could not be released safely. After finding Gu Ningyun’s Martial Uncle’s defensive hair ornament, the group decided they had to enter the tomb, while Gu Ningyun reflected on her Martial Uncle’s distant Dao Companion.

• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling recognized the ancient formation as the Seven Baleful Spirits Soul-Locking Formation, which imprisoned the tomb occupant’s soul.
• Su Jiu explained that the formation could not be dismantled and that additional seals likely protected the tomb occupant’s coffin.
• Su Jiu found a nearly pristine hair ornament in the grass, and Gu Ningyun recognized it as her Martial Uncle’s strongest defensive magic treasure.
• Gu Ningyun concluded that the group had to enter the tomb, while Yun Huanling wondered whether her Martial Uncle had left the ornament as a trap.
• Gu Ningyun revealed that her Martial Uncle’s Dao Companion belonged to the Vast Righteousness Sect and recalled that her elders had cautioned her against the relationship.

Gu Ningyun and the others entered the tomb through the formation and discovered a vast underground complex where divine sense was restricted. In another burial chamber, Huang Shan accused his wife Liu Min of hiding the Blue-and-White Hairpin and demanded her Heavenly Silkworm Garment, while his young disciple manipulated the dispute.

• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling opened a gap in the formation, and the five cultivators entered the tomb after Yun Huanling revealed the stele as its entrance.
• Gu Ningyun hesitated over the truth she might uncover, then followed the others into the tomb, unaware that another figure slipped in behind her.
• Yun Huanling detected damage to the tomb, and the group found their divine sense blocked by the burial chambers as they explored the main passage.
• Huang Shan accused Liu Min of concealing the Blue-and-White Hairpin, but Liu Min insisted she had given it to his young disciple.
• Huang Shan believed his disciple's suggestion that Liu Min was shifting blame and ordered Liu Min to hand over her Heavenly Silkworm Garment, which she refused to surrender.

Huang Shan demanded Liu Min’s treasures and pills, while she confronted him over his hypocrisy and the past that had driven her onto the heretical path. The confrontation left Huang Shan remembering that he still needed Liu Min’s help to retrieve what he had come for.

• Huang Shan demanded the Heavenly Silkworm Garment, and Liu Min refused, so he gave his young disciple a defensive bracelet instead.
• Huang Shan demanded pills from Liu Min and threatened to dissolve their Dao Companion Contract, but she mocked him and warned him not to covet her possessions.
• Liu Min accused Huang Shan of hiding his relationship with his disciple, and he denied it while insisting that he was protecting her as her master.
• Huang Shan called Liu Min a Heretical Cultivator, prompting her to accuse him of having pushed her toward the Corpse-Control Technique and to condemn their relationship.
• The young disciple reminded Huang Shan that they had not retrieved what they came for, and he realized they still needed Liu Min.

Su Jiu and the others explored a series of side chambers, finding that the coffins had all been emptied and suspecting someone had stolen the bodies to make corpse puppets. They reached a pair of bronze doors at the end of the passage, where the carvings depicted Chinese roses that could weakly induce illusions.

• Su Jiu and the others searched a side chamber and found an empty shelf still heavy with yin qi, suggesting a vessel had been taken.
• Yun Huanling identified a Heavenly Wolf carved on the coffin, and Yun Chao opened it to reveal that the coffin was empty.
• Su Jiu noticed a faint mark inside the coffin and concluded that someone had stolen the body, possibly to make the corpse puppets they had encountered the previous night.
• Su Jiu and the others explored more side chambers and found that every coffin was empty, while the carved demon beasts grew stronger toward the inner chambers.
• Su Jiu and the others reached bronze doors covered in Chinese roses and recognized that the carvings could weakly draw people into an illusion realm.

Liu Min demanded that Huang Shan dissolve their Dao Companion Contract, and his young disciple Yan'er manipulated his guilt until he turned his attention back to her. Liu Min began meditating while Huang Shan gave Yan'er two pills, and Yan'er regretted discarding the Blue-and-White Hairpin and hoped no one would find it.

• Yun Huanling traced the Chinese Rose patterns on the doors and asked Su Jiu whether the Main Tomb Chamber lay beyond them, but she did not answer.
• Liu Min asked Huang Shan to dissolve their Dao Companion Contract, and he agreed only if she helped them obtain the Soul-Suppressing Pearl.
• Huang Shan admitted through his reaction that he had once felt something for Liu Min, but Yan'er interrupted him and drew his sympathy with tears and tender words.
• Huang Shan refused to comfort Liu Min and gave Yan'er two pills to treat her injuries, while Liu Min began regulating her breathing.
• Yan'er regretted throwing away the Blue-and-White Hairpin near the gravestone and hoped no one would come across it.