Chapter Summaries

Luo Cheng suspected that Luo Ge had used a high-grade Sound-Imitating Talisman and Qiongyue Flower Pastries to lure cultivators into the Windforest Star River, including Su Jiu and Gu Ningyun. As Xia Jue and the others waited at the entrance, He Panpan pieced together Luo Cheng’s connection to the items, and the Secret Realm entrance suddenly lit up as someone emerged.

• Luo Cheng recognized the Sound-Imitating Talisman and Qiongyue Flower Pastries, suspected Luo Ge had sent Su Jiu and Gu Ningyun into the Secret Realm, and feared Xia Jue knew the truth.
• Xia Jue and the Enforcement Hall disciples waited without questioning the gathered cultivators, while the Heavenly Music Pavilion decided to wait for Gu Ningyun.
• Luo Cheng stayed at the entrance to prevent anyone from entering and to watch who came out, worried that cultivators might uncover the Secret Realm’s secrets.
• He Panpan noticed Luo Cheng’s reactions to the talisman and pastry crumbs, deduced that Luo Ge might be involved, and considered telling Xia Jue in hopes of joining the Enforcement Hall.
• The Secret Realm entrance lit up, signaling that someone was coming out.

Yang Guo used her Heart Discernment ability to question a frightened cultivator who had escaped the Secret Realm. His account of corpses, black-skinned red-eyed demon beasts, and drifting black energy left the gathered cultivators uncertain about what was happening inside.

• Xia Jue sent Yang Guo to approach the rogue cultivator, whose fear made the crowd's questions go unanswered.
• Yang Guo used her voice to calm the man and lead him back to Xia Jue for questioning.
• The rogue cultivator said he had awakened among mangled corpses, seen two black-skinned, red-eyed demon beasts fighting, and fled through the nearby exit.
• He recalled wisps of black energy that resembled demonic qi, prompting the gathered cultivators to debate whether it could be demonic qi, demon aura, or something else.
• Yang Guo questioned the man while an Enforcement Hall disciple recorded his answers on a jade slip, then released him after removing her influence from his consciousness.

Xia Jue noticed demonic qi on a badly wounded Vast Righteousness Sect disciple while Luo Cheng realized his sister Luo Ge had likely helped cause Su Jiu’s disappearance. As Luo Cheng weighed the danger of confronting Xia Jue, a Spirit Severing Stage cultivator emerged from the Secret Realm.

• Yang Guo reassured a rogue cultivator that the Enforcement Hall’s mental control would not affect him, and the cultivator hurried away.
• Xia Jue teased the records clerk about damaging the Enforcement Hall’s reputation, then criticized his forced smile.
• Wounded cultivators emerged from the Secret Realm, and Luo Cheng ordered the Vast Righteousness Sect disciples to be taken back.
• Xia Jue sensed demonic qi on a severely injured disciple, while Luo Cheng blocked his view and recognized the danger Xia Jue posed.
• Luo Cheng learned that a disciple had met Luo Ge and Su Jiu before entering the Secret Realm, and suspected Xia Jue knew what had happened to Su Jiu.
• Another cultivator emerged with relatively light injuries, and Luo Cheng was surprised to find they had Spirit Severing Stage cultivation.

Liu Min escaped the tomb but was chased by two powerful magic beasts. After luring them into the battlefield with her puppet, she headed for the entrance, only to be intercepted after a cultivator’s Magic Treasure briefly dazed her.

• Liu Min sensed a battle between cultivators and magic beasts, then drew two powerful beasts away from the fight with her flute and miasma puppet.
• Liu Min shaped her puppet like a magic beast and led the two attackers toward the battlefield while it fought them.
• Liu Min’s puppet wounded the beasts before dissipating, and she rushed toward the entrance.
• A cultivator’s Magic Treasure dazed Liu Min, allowing the two beasts to catch up with her.
• Liu Min grabbed the cultivator and hurled them toward the beasts to create an opening for her escape.

Liu Min escaped the secret realm only to be confronted by her former Heavenly Music Pavilion disciples, who had learned she stole and practiced the Puppet Sect's forbidden technique. She chose death rather than return and burden the sect, leaving her senior sister with warnings about the Three Great Secret Realms, the Demon-Subduing Land, the black cloaks, and Hao.

• Liu Min escaped the secret realm while a person behind her was torn apart, showing no remorse for their death.
• Liu Min emerged to find her former senior sister and Heavenly Music Pavilion disciples waiting to arrest her for stealing and practicing the Puppet Sect's forbidden technique.
• Liu Min released a powder that incapacitated some of those nearby, then tried to leave, but her senior sister bound and confronted her.
• Liu Min broke free and let her senior sister's sword pierce her shoulder, choosing to die rather than return to the sect and draw condemnation upon it.
• As Liu Min died, she comforted her senior sister and warned her to avoid the Three Great Secret Realms and the Demon-Subduing Land, beware the black cloaks, and watch out for Hao.

After Liu Min’s death, Xia Jue watched suspicion fall on the Vast Righteousness Sect as Luo Cheng tried to silence the witnesses. Meanwhile, Su Jiu and Yun Huanling completed the formation patterns, causing the platform in the burial chamber to begin sinking.

• Xia Jue told the recording disciple to note his guess that Liu Min’s final warning referred to the Vast Righteousness Sect.
• Luo Cheng used his divine sense to warn rogue cultivators against discussing their suspicions about the strange beast and the sect.
• Xia Jue waited for his junior sister as the crowd anticipated trouble for the Vast Righteousness Sect in the Windforest Star River.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling synchronized their hand seals and made the dragon and phoenix engravings merge into overlapping red and blue light.
• Su Jiu announced that the formation was about to begin, and the platform beneath the five people slowly started sinking as their hand seals trembled.

Su Jiu and her companions reached the Main Tomb Chamber and discovered the remains of a Divine Descendant clan, apparently slaughtered for someone’s heretical scheme to steal the tomb’s fortune. Gu Ningyun recognized that the paintings on the walls were bringing back memories of the events surrounding the Gu Household’s massacre.

• Su Jiu, Yun Huanling, and their companions descended into the Main Tomb Chamber, where they found a lavish coffin, four bloodstained Three-Legged Cauldrons, and heaps of bones.
• Yun Huanling identified distinctive bones in a skeleton as proof that the dead were Divine Descendants, and confirmed that all the remains belonged to them.
• Su Jiu realized the Divine Descendants had likely been used as sacrifices to evade heavenly scrutiny and carry out heretical acts such as stealing fortune.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling suspected the dead had belonged to one clan whose secluded home had been discovered, while Yun Chao condemned the slaughter.
• Gu Ningyun examined the wall paintings, which revived memories of the Gu Household’s massacre and of her Old Master keeping her nearby during secret discussions with the Zhu Household and the Si Family.

Gu Ningyun remembered that the Zhu Household and Si Family had used sinister portraits from Windforest Star River to massacre the Gu Household, and the memories triggered a near cultivation deviation. Su Jiu pulled her back and warned that she needed to resolve her heart demon, then asked whether it had caused her injuries.

• Gu Ningyun recalled that her grandfather had opposed the portraits from Windforest Star River, and the Zhu Household and Si Family had silenced him and used the Gu Household as test subjects.
• Gu Ningyun suspected the Si Family still possessed the two portraits missing from the Netherworld Mountain passage, and she struggled with her conflicting feelings about someone connected to the family.
• The portraits magnified Gu Ningyun's grief and heart demon until she nearly suffered cultivation deviation.
• Su Jiu called Gu Ningyun back to her senses and explained that the strong demonic qi in the portrait had drawn out her heart demon.
• Su Jiu urged Gu Ningyun to resolve her heart demon and asked whether it had caused her internal injuries and unstable cultivation; Gu Ningyun hesitated to answer.

Su Jiu warned Gu Ningyun that her heart demon threatened her path to Spirit Transformation and urged her to confront what troubled her. The group discovered that two dangerous painting scrolls had gone missing from beneath Netherworld Mountain and considered investigating Danzhou City.

• Su Jiu explained that Gu Ningyun needed to overcome her heart demon to reach Spirit Transformation, while Gu Ningyun stayed silent and reflected.
• Su Jiu warned Yun Chao and the others that the demonic paintings could lure cultivators inside and devour them.
• Feng Qi recalled hearing a tale in Danzhou City about paintings that could devour people.
• Su Jiu compared the marks on the bare wall with the paintings beneath Netherworld Mountain and found thirteen spaces where only eleven scrolls had been stored there.
• Feng Qi proposed investigating Danzhou City, while Su Jiu suspected the person who first spread the story was a senior from the Si Family or the Zhu Household.

The Painting Spirit recognized a familiar aura in the dangerous paintings and insisted that their artist might be a good person. Su Jiu warned that she intended to kill him if he was a harmful demonic cultivator, but the Painting Spirit asked her to show mercy.

• Feng Qi listened to Gu Ningyun recount the Zhu Household's tragic past while privately suspecting the Si Family held the missing paintings.
• The Painting Spirit told Su Jiu that the paintings carried an aura she remembered and said she wanted to meet their artist.
• Su Jiu warned the Painting Spirit that the artist might be a demonic cultivator and that she would kill him if he harmed people.
• The Painting Spirit defended the artist, arguing that the people who stole the paintings were responsible for using them to commit evil.
• Su Jiu's other spirits challenged the Painting Spirit's reasoning, but she stopped them and asked what the Painting Spirit truly wanted.
• The Painting Spirit said she believed the artist could not be bad and asked Su Jiu to show him mercy.

Su Jiu discovered that the blood-drawn talisman surrounding the coffin was designed to steal fortune, and identified the coffin as its medium. The Painting Spirit chose to remain with her, while the identity and whereabouts of the person who stole the fortune remained unknown.

• Su Jiu confronted the Painting Spirit about whether it might harm her, and the spirit finally said it did not want to leave her before retreating into the Painting Scroll.
• Yun Huanling recognized the Painting Spirit as the woman depicted in the portrait from the Zheng Household and confirmed that it did not match any of the missing paintings’ places on the walls.
• Feng Qi uncovered blood-drawn patterns around the coffin, and Su Jiu identified them as a curse talisman associated with the Curse Spirit Sect.
• Su Jiu examined the coffin’s five-elements-and-eight-trigrams arrangement of spirit stones and found a small empty recess at its center.
• Su Jiu explained that the Fortune-Stealing Curse Talisman used Hidden Clan blood and the coffin to steal fortune, and that the person responsible had taken the item once placed in the recess.

Su Jiu and the others investigated the tomb’s history and discovered that its coffin imprisoned the vengeful souls of the dead. They left the souls trapped for now, recognizing that opening the coffin would be dangerous, and continued discussing the tomb.

• Su Jiu explained that the Fortune-Transferring Pearl had likely absorbed fortune and sinister energies in the Ancient Tomb before Zheng Qilong obtained it, while Feng Qi reconsidered how it became an evil artifact.
• Yun Chao deduced that a heretical cultivator had carved the floor inscriptions and likely tricked the tomb’s owner into sealing Senior Lu, while the Three Families later took the wall paintings.
• Su Jiu confirmed that Senior Lu’s presence kept the coffin’s corpse from turning undead and that spirit stones on the coffin formed a confinement array.
• Su Jiu revealed that the array imprisoned the remains’ souls, which had become vengeful spirits, and warned Yun Huanling that releasing them could cause heavy losses.
• The Snow Sprite asked Su Jiu for the Soft Jade Blue Crystal, received it, and went to cultivate while Su Jiu and the others continued discussing the tomb.

After the great tomb collapsed, Su Jiu and her companions learned that its suppressed souls and the tomb owner's corpse were about to emerge. They encountered the pursuing corpse and fought back, while Yun Huanling escaped its bindings with help from Su Jiu's Ice Blades.

• Su Jiu and her companions left the great tomb, which soon shattered and released a column of Yin Evil Qi into the sky.
• Lu Mingyang warned them through the Yin Soul Jade that the tomb's suppressed souls and its owner's corpse were about to escape, and Su Jiu's Formation Disks began to crack.
• Su Jiu sensed strange, powerful magic beasts ahead, then noticed the black qi drifting south and ordered everyone to prepare for battle.
• The group turned back and confronted the wrapped corpse; its cloth strips shot out and bound Yun Huanling tightly.
• Su Jiu sent Ice Blades to cut the strips apart, freeing Yun Huanling as he leaped back and activated his Compass.

Su Jiu fought the zombie’s soul-absorbing cloth strips while protecting her companions and searching for a way to defeat it. She called on Purple Ultimate to join her in battle, then ordered him to attune with her as her Life-Bound Treasure.

• Su Jiu recognized the strips’ Yin-Gathering Soul-Absorbing Pattern and evaded their attacks while repeatedly cutting them apart.
• Su Jiu rescued Yun Huanling with Ice Spikes and saw Gu Ningyun defend herself with her konghou and a wind barrier.
• Su Jiu found Yun Chao seriously wounded and decided against using the Spirit-Cleansing Pool Water after Little Pearl explained it could not harm the souls in the strips.
• Su Jiu summoned Purple Ultimate and asked whether they could slay the zombie together; he said they could.
• Su Jiu ordered Purple Ultimate to attune with her, and he reacted in disbelief.

Su Jiu attuned with Purple Ultimate and gained the speed and strength to take control of the battle against the zombie. After identifying its vital point, she told her companions to retreat, preparing to deal with it herself.

• Su Jiu attuned with Purple Ultimate, whose markings and appearance transformed her into a fierce, beautiful young man.
• Su Jiu overwhelmed the zombie’s attacks with her increased speed and swordsmanship, giving Feng Qi and the others room to approach.
• Su Jiu took two sixth-tier lightning- or fire-type talismans from Feng Qi and pinpointed the zombie’s vital point.
• Su Jiu ordered her companions to move away, and Feng Qi, Gu Ningyun, Yun Chao, and Yun Huanling retreated beyond the cloth strips’ range.

Su Jiu killed the zombie by attuning with her artifact spirit and detonating two Thunderstorm Talismans. Her companions discussed the Spirit-Forging Pool and the risks of awakening artifact spirits before asking whether attunement had harmed her.

• Su Jiu evaded the zombie’s cloth strips, attached two sixth-tier Thunderstorm Talismans to its vital point, and blasted it to death.
• Yun Huanling, Yun Chao, and Gu Ningyun marveled at Su Jiu’s attunement, while Feng Qi mentioned the Spirit-Forging Pool on Heavenly Cloud Mountain.
• Gu Ningyun explained that Heavenly Cloud Mountain was difficult and dangerous to reach, and Feng Qi warned that awakened spirits might not match their owners’ attributes.
• Yun Huanling and Yun Chao accepted that even an incompatible spirit would be valuable, given how rare artifact spirits were.
• Su Jiu rejoined the group, and Gu Ningyun complimented her appearance before asking whether attunement had caused her any discomfort.

Su Jiu and the others discussed spirit attunement, then grew suspicious that the Vast Righteousness Sect had deliberately allowed demonic beasts to escape from the seal. Yun Huanling used his Nine-Bend Compass to locate the seal’s entrance, but danger approached before he could finish.

• Su Jiu explained that the Snow Sprite was another naturally born spirit, and Yun Chao and the others discussed seeking spirits at Heavenly Cloud Mountain.
• Su Jiu questioned why the escaped demonic beasts had not been dealt with and suggested the seal’s guardians might have let them out deliberately.
• Su Jiu asked Yun Huanling to use his knowledge of the Windforest Star River to determine the seal’s direction.
• Yun Huanling activated the Nine-Bend Compass while Su Jiu considered how long-kept spirit artifacts could develop powerful spirits.
• As Yun Huanling’s compass slowed, Su Jiu sensed approaching danger and stirred the ice spiritual qi around her.

Su Jiu and her companions fought off two magic beasts while Yun Huanling completed his divination. His result pointed toward the Seal Grounds, where Su Jiu suspected the Vast Righteousness Sect was hiding something, leaving her uncertain whether to lead her companions into greater danger.

• A wounded cultivator fleeing two magic beasts collapsed before Su Jiu and her companions, and the beasts turned their attention to the group.
• Su Jiu, Yun Chao, and Feng Qi fought the beasts while Gu Ningyun played her konghou; Su Jiu warned them about the beasts' infectious demonic qi and poisonous scales.
• The two beasts charged at Su Jiu, whose attunement with Purple Ultimate let her defeat them with Snowfall Swordsmanship, astonishing Yun Chao and Feng Qi.
• Yun Huanling finished his divination and said the yin evil qi was drifting in the general direction of the Seal Grounds.
• Su Jiu connected the increasing danger and the Vast Righteousness Sect's odd behavior, then fell silent as she worried about leading her companions farther into peril.

Su Jiu arranged for Feng Qi and Yun Chao to leave the Secret Realm and seek help while Yun Huanling and Gu Ningyun stayed with her. The three remaining companions continued toward the seal, united by Su Jiu’s reassurance that friends with different strengths could fight together.

• Su Jiu suspected the Vast Righteousness Sect was blocking the Secret Realm entrance and sent Feng Qi and Yun Chao to ask the Enforcement Hall for help.
• Yun Huanling and Gu Ningyun chose to remain with Su Jiu, hoping their presence would pressure the Vast Righteousness Sect to let the other sects enter.
• Su Jiu insisted Yun Chao leave with Feng Qi to protect them from magic beasts on the way back, and Yun Chao reluctantly agreed.
• Gu Ningyun told Su Jiu that her friends could help buy her time, and Su Jiu explained that friends should accept one another’s different strengths.
• Su Jiu walked ahead toward the seal with Yun Huanling and Gu Ningyun following her.

Yun Chao and Feng Qi fought their way toward the exit, finding the corpses of people who had entered with them and suspecting that someone had led them out of Su Jiu’s defensive formation. When three fleeing Vast Righteousness Sect disciples tried to draw the pair into danger, Feng Qi stopped Yun Chao and exposed their suspicious behavior, leaving the cultivators to decide whether to fight the beasts themselves.

• Yun Chao and Feng Qi cautiously fought the magic beasts along Su Jiu’s route, and Yun Chao’s existing injuries worsened until Feng Qi made him stop and recover.
• The two found increasing numbers of corpses and bloodstains, and Yun Chao realized the dead had been among the cultivators sent into the area.
• Feng Qi suggested that the dead had left Su Jiu’s defensive formation willingly, prompting Yun Chao to confront the possibility that other cultivators had betrayed them.
• Three people fleeing two magic beasts called for help, but Feng Qi recognized that the two Spirit Severing Stage cultivators had been using others as bait and that the trio looked uninjured.
• Feng Qi pulled Yun Chao aside and pointed out the trio’s strength and plentiful spiritual qi, while the female cultivator urged her companions to fight the beasts themselves.