Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu and her companions were barred from entering Red Maple Mountain, where the red maples had become bloodthirsty demon plants fed by murdered cultivators. They withdrew to investigate in Red Maple City, and Su Jiu asked Thirteen to obtain records of an old case before her Sound-Mixing Bell suddenly lit up.

• Thirteen explained Red Maple Mountain’s strict taboos as the group approached the real Heavenly Cloud Mountain, but armed cultivators stopped them from entering.
• Su Jiu noticed the red maples’ hostility, and the gatekeepers exposed a cultivator’s mummy as a warning to anyone who tried to enter.
• Su Jiu realized the maples had devoured human flesh and blood and become demon plants, while Qi Song condemned the cultivators for the murder.
• Su Jiu chose to retreat to Red Maple City rather than risk the lives of Qi Song and the others, and Thirteen and the Ghost Market cultivators sent messages to their organizations.
• Thirteen recalled an old Enforcement Hall pursuit through the forest, and Su Jiu asked him to request Feng Qi’s records about the case.
• Su Jiu’s Sound-Mixing Bell lit up as she and Thirteen flew toward Red Maple City.

Su Jiu and her companions entered Red Maple City while investigating whether Red Maple Forest was connected to a heretical cultivator’s strange behavior. As Su Jiu noticed signs of the Red Maple Immortal Lord’s influence throughout the city, a mysterious red maple tree secretly aimed a black arrow at its human partner.

• Su Jiu warned Xia Jue that purifying a demon seed had left her nearly depleted, and Xia Jue cautioned her against increasing her innate origin qi faster than her cultivation could support.
• Xia Jue questioned Feng Qi about a heretical cultivator who had confessed unusually easily, and they suspected red maple leaves might have altered the man’s behavior.
• A gaunt man argued with a red maple tree about letting Su Jiu’s group go, and the tree formed a black bow and aimed an arrow at him before dissolving it.
• Su Jiu and her companions entered Red Maple City, where the residents who had followed them dispersed and the group split up to search for a route to Heavenly Cloud Mountain.
• Su Jiu observed that maple-leaf motifs appeared throughout the city and concluded that its residents revered the Red Maple Immortal Lord.

Su Jiu, Qi Song, and Li Ran learned about Red Maple City’s blessing parade and observed its unsettling customs and devotees. After the boy attendant survived an assassination attempt, Su Jiu identified the guards’ striped garments as formation patterns, and the parade continued with the crowd awaiting the Immortal Lord’s decree.

• Su Jiu learned from a stallholder that Red Maple City’s parade offered selected people free blessings, while temple visits cost a thousand spirit stones and residents could pray only once a year.
• The stallholder told Su Jiu that an outsider who called the Red Maple Immortal Lord a fraud had been taken away by the City Lord’s Residence, then pointed the group toward the temple.
• Su Jiu, Qi Song, and Li Ran watched the parade approach and noticed a foul, fishy smell that the city’s residents seemed unable to detect.
• Two assassins attacked the boy attendant, but a red barrier threw them back and the sixteen guards killed them.
• Su Jiu identified the guards’ red-striped garments as formation patterns controlled by a highly skilled formation arts artist.
• The parade continued as the boy announced the Immortal Lord’s decree and the crowd eagerly awaited the blessing selection.

Lan Fang Ziyi manipulated Red Maple City's residents into challenging the Fortune Blessing Child, who ordered them killed before the guards escorted him away. At an inn, Su Jiu learned that Thirteen and other outsiders had been trapped in the city during the festival and met Murong Ye, who was searching for his missing brother.

• The Fortune Blessing Child chose Lan Fang Ziyi, and sixteen guards surrounded him and took him away while Su Jiu decided not to intervene directly.
• Lan Fang Ziyi mocked the residents for letting an outsider receive the blessing, inciting their anger and prompting the child to ask whether they could all be killed.
• The guards ignored the child's order and escorted him away as red maple leaves fell and the residents dispersed.
• Su Jiu met Thirteen and two Enforcement Hall disciples at an inn, where Thirteen explained that city guards had barred outsiders from leaving for seven days and that a fight had left one disciple injured.
• Murong Ye joined Su Jiu's group and explained that he was searching for his elder brother, whose communication magic treasure had stopped working after Murong Ye entered the city.

Su Jiu and the others connected Red Maple City's protective marks to the guards’ formation and decided to investigate the temple, where they suspected they might find Lan Fang Ziyi. Meanwhile, the Red Maple Immortal Lord argued with the sickly city leader and a black-clad partner over whom he could target, while Lan Fang Ziyi remained imprisoned at the temple under the pretense of receiving a blessing.

• Murong Ye described how the city's red light absorbed his attacks and made wounds inflicted on residents rebound onto him, and Su Jiu linked the protection to the red maple marks and the sixteen guards.
• Su Jiu led the group toward the temple, suspecting they might encounter Lan Fang Ziyi, while Thirteen complained about the Heavenly Secret Sect.
• A sickly man confronted the red maple for targeting someone from a major sect, and the Red Maple Immortal Lord revealed he was nearing a Void Refinement breakthrough and needed stronger nourishment.
• The Red Maple Immortal Lord reprimanded Nian Nian for ordering guards to kill people, then refused the black-clad man's suggestion to target Su Jiu and warned him against meddling.
• Lan Fang Ziyi, who had arrived at Red Maple Mountain ahead of Su Jiu, was locked inside the temple and left to face the supposed blessing after becoming the procession's central figure.

Su Jiu and the others investigated Red Maple Temple, discovered its barrier shared the style of a formation protecting a boy, and entered after Su Jiu secretly opened a temporary passage. Inside, they found an unexpected row of side rooms and prepared to split up to search for Lan Fang Ziyi.

• Su Jiu recognized that Red Maple Temple’s barrier had been made by the same person who created the defensive formation on the boy, and learned that Murong Ye was searching for his younger brother Murong Feng.
• Su Jiu found that mist obscured the temple and might connect it to Red Maple Mountain, then examined the barrier while Murong Ye injured himself probing it with his untrained divine sense.
• Su Jiu used a Formation Disk to disperse the barrier’s spiritual qi at its entrance, creating a passage that would remain open for about four hours.
• Su Jiu, Thirteen, Da Lu, Xiao Lu, and Murong Ye entered Red Maple Temple and found side rooms instead of a prayer hall; Su Jiu could not use her divine sense through the walls.
• Da Lu suggested splitting into two groups to search faster, and the others looked to Su Jiu to decide.

Su Jiu and Murong Ye explored the temple’s connected courtyards, overheard pilgrims describe outsiders dying after being selected by the Red Maple Immortal Lord, and learned that Lan Fang Ziyi might be his next target. They reunited with Thirteen, Da Lu, and Xiao Lu, whose violent encounter with pilgrims raised new questions about the temple’s strange layout.

• Su Jiu and Murong Ye entered successive courtyards, where Su Jiu used Concealment Breath Talismans before they heard pilgrims discussing outsiders selected by the Red Maple Immortal Lord.
• Su Jiu learned that two outsiders who had escaped the Immortal Lord later died, and she suspected Lan Fang Ziyi might be in danger as his next target.
• Su Jiu led Murong Ye through more guest-room courtyards but found no Main Hall before the time limit approached, so they returned.
• Su Jiu found Thirteen, Da Lu, and Xiao Lu outside; they had escaped a crowd of pilgrims after Da Lu and Xiao Lu were injured.
• Thirteen told Su Jiu that the courtyards blocked divine sense but not sound, and Su Jiu questioned how the temple’s layout worked and how pilgrims reached the Main Hall.

Su Jiu entered the Red Maple Temple as a pilgrim to investigate its strange protections and discovered that a wooden token let her see through an illusion concealing the temple’s true structure. She reached the blessing ceremony platform, where hostile city residents gathered, and waited to learn what would happen next.

• Su Jiu sent Thirteen, Da Lu, and Xiao Lu to investigate the Prayer Festival while she planned to visit the temple alone.
• Wanted notices featuring the three fugitives appeared, and Thirteen recognized the hot-tempered cultivator from the city gates heading toward the temple.
• Su Jiu joined the long line of pilgrims, received a damp wooden token from an expressionless maiden attendant, and paid a thousand spirit stones to enter.
• Su Jiu concluded that the temple attendants were puppets and discovered that the token allowed her to see through an illusion hiding stairs and a lofty pavilion.
• Su Jiu climbed to the platform, noticed the aura surrounding the pilgrims’ lodgings and maple trees, and heard residents whisper suspiciously about her as an outsider.

Su Jiu followed the Red Maple Temple’s ritual preparations while investigating the strange energy that seemed to influence the city’s residents. She entered the bathing pool with the other female worshippers, still questioning why the ritual was necessary.

• Su Jiu watched two handsome male cultivators draw the residents’ scorn, then avoided approaching them so the three of them would not attract more attention.
• After waiting four hours, Su Jiu followed the female attendants to rooms behind the temple and found that red maple energy tried to enter her body but recoiled from her meridians.
• Su Jiu concluded that the energy could assimilate residents over time, while the Wind Spirit reported that the surrounding red maple trees were alive, silent, and emitting foul gas.
• Su Jiu took the supplied clothes through a Teleportation Array to a hot spring courtyard, where the other female worshippers undressed and entered the pool.
• A female worshipper urged Su Jiu to bathe so she could enter the main hall, and Su Jiu asked why cultivators needed to imitate mortals by bathing.

Su Jiu uncovered signs that the Red Maple Temple’s red maple trees were watching the pilgrims and planting seeds in their dantians. In the main hall, she exposed the Red Maple Immortal Lord’s possession of a Southern Mountain Sect disciple and demanded that he hand over Lan Fang Ziyi.

• Su Jiu sensed yin evil qi in the hot spring and used an illusion double while she explored the courtyard and sent Wind Spirit through the barrier.
• Wind Spirit confirmed the barrier opened onto the Red Maple Forest, and Su Jiu realized the apparently lifeless trees were watching the pilgrims.
• Su Jiu noticed a maple-leaf-shaped red mark on a female pilgrim and entered the main hall, where she learned that a Southern Mountain Sect disciple had found a dark green seed in his dantian.
• The Southern Mountain Sect disciple warned Su Jiu about the tree on the platform and sought her cooperation, but she noticed his aura had changed to match the tree’s.
• Su Jiu identified the possessed disciple as the Red Maple Immortal Lord and demanded that he hand over Lan Fang Ziyi.

Su Jiu confronted the Red Maple True Lord, who offered to take her to Heavenly Cloud Mountain if she stopped investigating, but refused to hand over Lan Fang Ziyi unless she exchanged Qi Song. Back at the inn, the group compared findings linking the Red Maple Temple, the city’s growing worship, and the dangerous Red Maple Forest to changes that began a century earlier.

• Su Jiu revealed that she had identified the Red Maple True Lord’s real body and challenged him about how he knew the Enforcement Hall members’ identities.
• The Red Maple True Lord asked Su Jiu to stop investigating in exchange for taking her to Heavenly Cloud Mountain, but refused her request for Lan Fang Ziyi and proposed Qi Song instead.
• Su Jiu rejected the bargain and left; the Red Maple True Lord ordered the guide to let her go and told him to throw the other outsiders out rather than kill them.
• Qi Song and Li Ran reported that Red Maple City’s worship and hostility toward outsiders had grown after two city lords died suddenly over the past century.
• Shisan explained that the Red Maple Forest’s leaves had also become dangerous around a century earlier, causing cultivation deviation and making the forest perilous.
• Su Jiu and the others exchanged their findings and began discussing what to do next.

Su Jiu and Thirteen infiltrated the City Lord's Residence to investigate, but guards' red maple marks exposed them and split them into separate fights. Su Jiu battled a powerful puppet that created a stronger clone, while Thirteen encountered an unknown creature shrouded in yin resentful qi.

• Red Maple treated the sick young City Lord, who accused him of causing his family's hereditary illness and deaths, then asked whether he would die soon; Red Maple assured him he would not.
• Su Jiu left Qi Song behind under a barrier and took Thirteen to the City Lord's Residence, where red maple marks on the guards shattered their Concealment Breath Talismans.
• The guard leader pursued Su Jiu with a transforming black ribbon and spear while Thirteen slipped farther into the residence and fought off numerous guards.
• Su Jiu identified the guard leader as a puppet and weakened it with frost arts, but it created a clone that absorbed its energy and reached full strength as the original was destroyed.
• At the second gate, Thirteen faced a mysterious attacker concealed by yin resentful qi and, after defending through a long exchange, realized it did not behave like a corrupted demon beast.

Su Jiu and Thirteen defeated the puppets and restrained the mutated tree spirit, then were imprisoned in the City Lord’s Residence. The man in the Black Cloak visited the prison and revealed that he had captured Lan Fang Ziyi because he intended to use his divination talent.

• Su Jiu separated Clone One from Clone Two with an ice wall, destroyed Clone One, and rushed to help Thirteen.
• Su Jiu identified Thirteen’s attacker as a forcibly mutated tree spirit and stopped Thirteen from killing him, saying they still needed him.
• The man in the Black Veil Hat admitted to Red Maple that he had experimented on the tree spirit, and Red Maple returned injured with Little Feng.
• Su Jiu and Thirteen were taken to the innermost prison cell, where the formations suppressed their spiritual qi and increased the pressure.
• The man in the Black Cloak entered the prison using Red Maple’s command token and told Lan Fang Ziyi that he had captured him to use his divination talent.

Xia Yun revealed himself as Su Jiu’s captor and taunted her with claims about Xia Jue’s birth and the Xia Household’s hatred of him. Su Jiu and Thirteen remained imprisoned, learned Lan Fang Ziyi was held in the second-to-last cell, and began considering how to rescue him when the ceremony started.

• Xia Yun removed his hood and admitted he had plotted to kill Su Jiu, while Su Jiu recognized him as the Shadow Hall Hall Master and accused him of serving a hidden power.
• Xia Yun claimed Xia Jue had been born with demonic qi and had been hated and nearly killed by his father, provoking Thirteen to defend Xia Jue.
• Xia Yun recalled how a mysterious voice had guided his rise and promised him a way to improve his cultivation, then left Su Jiu with a threat.
• Thirteen urged Su Jiu not to believe Xia Yun, while Su Jiu doubted his account and questioned whether he was clever enough to plan the entire scheme himself.
• Su Jiu identified Lan Fang Ziyi’s cell as the second-to-last one and decided to wait for the ceremony before attempting a rescue.
• Thirteen explained that the Xia Household had abandoned Xia Jue at birth, then tried to reclaim him after his talent emerged.

Su Jiu and Thirteen were taken with the other prisoners to a public ceremony, where she uncovered the emptiness behind Red Maple’s supposed blessing ritual. Red Maple then claimed an oracle had ordered Heaven to decide the prisoners’ fates, while an unfamiliar figure approached Qi Song.

• Thirteen explained that Xia Yun had been driven by the Xia Household’s jealousy of the Hall Master, and Su Jiu suspected the family had tried to raise a replacement for him.
• Guards carried Su Jiu and Thirteen in a shrinking magic cell and herded Lan Fang Ziyi and the other prisoners onto carts for a procession through Red Maple City.
• As the procession passed through hostile crowds, Su Jiu noticed that the prisoners lacked red maple marks and concluded that the city’s rulers had arrested dissenters.
• At a huge sacrificial altar, Red Maple performed a dance that Su Jiu recognized as a display formation rather than a blessing, while marked citizens prayed and prisoners condemned him.
• Su Jiu spotted a familiar figure moving toward Qi Song as Red Maple claimed an oracle had left the prisoners’ fate to Heaven.

Red Maple exposed Xia Yun as the person behind the city’s protection talismans and named him to carry out the prisoners’ judgment. As tribulation lightning struck toward Xia Yun, the voice in his sea of consciousness urged him to kill Su Jiu, then abruptly vanished.

• Red Maple brought the prisoners, including Su Jiu and Thirteen, onto the sacrificial altar and announced that Xia Yun would deliver their judgment.
• Xia Yun reluctantly went onto the platform after the voice in his sea of consciousness urged him to accept Red Maple’s terms and prioritize what he already had.
• Red Maple told the crowd that Xia Yun had helped create the protection talismans and had worked behind the scenes for decades.
• Lightning flashed above the altar, and a second bolt appeared to target Xia Yun as he prepared to judge the prisoners.
• The voice in Xia Yun’s sea of consciousness ordered him to kill Su Jiu and promised to extend his lifespan and teach him to advance, then vanished.

Xia Yun realized Red Maple and Su Jiu had outmaneuvered him, while Su Jiu’s earlier conversation with Red Maple revealed how Xia Yun had manipulated the city and held Cheng Yu hostage. Red Maple began explaining how Xia Yun’s control had ruined his life and corrupted the Red Maple Forest, leaving Thirteen questioning why the corruption had gone unnoticed.

• Xia Yun tried to move closer to Su Jiu so the senior in his sea of consciousness could attack her, but lightning destroyed the senior before he could act.
• Xia Yun accused Red Maple of conspiring with Su Jiu, and the story turned back to Su Jiu’s earlier meeting with Red Maple after she rescued Little City.
• Su Jiu persuaded Red Maple to explain his history with Xia Yun, including how Xia Yun used Cheng Yu’s illness to force Red Maple into serving him for a hundred years.
• Red Maple recounted how Xia Yun’s poison killed the former city lord and his son, then left Cheng Yu sick and dependent on medicine.
• Red Maple revealed that Xia Yun had corrupted the Red Maple Forest and its trees, and that he had saved Little City by using his clan’s secret art.
• Thirteen asked why he and his companions had failed to notice anything wrong when they visited Red Maple Mountain decades earlier.

Su Jiu discovered that Cheng Yu was afflicted with the Life-Devouring Curse and that Xia Yun had used a life-substitution gu to keep it suppressed. She offered Red Maple a way to cleanse the mountain and its residents, then persuaded him to consider joining her against the person behind the curse.

• Red Maple explained that Xia Yun had used the Red Maple Leaf marks to spy on residents and suggest that they intercept outsiders.
• Su Jiu gave Red Maple Spirit-Cleansing Pool Water and proposed using it to remove the yin evil qi from the residents and Red Maple Mountain.
• Su Jiu secretly examined Cheng Yu and identified his affliction as a curse rather than poison.
• Su Jiu found the shed skin of a life-substitution gu among Cheng Yu's medicine dregs and explained that he suffered from the Life-Devouring Curse.
• Su Jiu told Red Maple that the curse's caster was likely Xia Yun and that the curse would end if the caster died.
• Red Maple questioned Su Jiu's motives, but after she pointed out that he had no other choice, he asked what he should do next.

Su Jiu’s plan exposed Xia Yun’s crimes and brought him down with the Evil-Binding Formation. She captured him alive, while the crowd learned that Red Maple had helped Xia Yun and that Red Maple City’s residents bore dangerous marks.

• Su Jiu explained that she had let Red Maple imprison her to draw Xia Yun out, and Red Maple confirmed that Xia Yun had visited her in prison.
• At the sacrifice, Xia Yun attacked Su Jiu and claimed she was dead, then revealed that Red Maple had sold the city’s residents to him and used their maple-leaf marks to torment them.
• Cheng Yu confronted Red Maple about Red Maple Mountain and the deal, while Red Maple promised that someone had come to help resolve the situation.
• Xia Yun pursued Lan Fang Ziyi, who called for Su Jiu, and Su Jiu appeared to activate the Evil-Binding Formation.
• The formation bound Xia Yun, sealed his spiritual qi, and dragged him back as Su Jiu trapped him inside its shrinking boundary.

Su Jiu killed Xia Yun after discovering that an unknown strand of divine sense had influenced him, but she learned nothing about its identity. The Xia Household abandoned Xia Yun’s mother after his death, and the same hidden force took control of her, setting her on a path against Su Jiu.

• Su Jiu questioned Xia Yun about the strand of divine sense in his sea of consciousness, but he could not identify its owner.
• Thirteen relayed the Enforcement Hall’s order to execute Xia Yun, and Su Jiu killed him with her Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword.
• The Xia Household learned that Xia Yun’s soul lamp had gone out, then confined his mother and decided to blame him for its conflicts with Xia Jue.
• A mysterious voice showed Xia Yun’s mother an image of Su Jiu killing her son and persuaded her to accept its help.
• Black mist entered Xia Yun’s mother, and she awoke with pure black eyes, broke her cultivation-suppressing ring, and opened the locked door.