Chapter Summaries

As Su Jiu's group prepared to leave Red Maple Mountain for Heavenly Cloud Mountain, Red Maple gave her a pendant that belonged to Silver Snow, prompting her to wonder why he had been pursued on the Azure Mist Continent. At the mountain entrance, two Southern Mountain Sect disciples confronted Red Maple about mysterious seeds in their dantians, while Su Jiu uncovered more of Xia Yun's hidden changes to Red Maple Temple.

• Qi Song completed Cheng Yu's final treatment, and Su Jiu told Cheng Yu that the group had to leave because Heavenly Cloud Mountain would only appear for a limited time.
• Red Maple offered Su Jiu a jade pendant she recognized as Silver Snow's; Red Maple explained he had found it after witnessing an outsider being pursued near Red Maple City.
• Su Jiu's group met the two Southern Mountain Sect disciples waiting at the entrance, and they accused Red Maple of putting seeds inside their bodies after they bathed at Red Maple Temple.
• Qi Song began examining the disciples, while Red Maple told Su Jiu that Xia Yun had redesigned Red Maple Temple and used the Puppet Sect's Corpse-Control Technique.
• Su Jiu urged Red Maple to inspect and repair the temple, or tear it down, after learning that Xia Yun had created hidden divisions between its courtyards.

Su Jiu removed counterfeit demon seeds from two Southern Mountain Sect disciples by using innate origin qi to destroy the seeds while limiting damage to their dantians. After both men endured severe pain and thanked her, the group remained near the entrance to Heavenly Cloud Mountain, uncertain whether the injured disciples would continue.

• Su Jiu identified the seeds inside the two Southern Mountain Sect disciples as likely counterfeit demon seeds and agreed to remove them.
• Su Jiu used innate origin qi to destroy High Ponytail's seed and its roots, leaving his dantian injured and causing him intense pain.
• The short-haired cultivator took a Minor Restoration Pill, and Su Jiu began removing his seed while Thirteen revealed he had sent the hall master a Message Talisman.
• Red Maple apologized for the trouble caused by Xia Yun, and Cheng Yu accepted responsibility as the city's lord.
• High Ponytail recovered enough to discuss the Heavenly Pool and the possibility of attuning to his Life-Bound Treasure, while the group waited for Su Jiu to finish treating his junior brother.
• The short-haired cultivator endured the same severe pain after his seed was removed, and the two disciples solemnly thanked Su Jiu.

Su Jiu confronted Red Maple about his experiments with demon seeds and warned him not to harm innocent people again before entering Heavenly Cloud Mountain. Elsewhere on the mountain, Yun Huanling remained trapped in a loop and ignored two mocking natural spirits instead of asking them for directions.

• Murong Ye left the group after learning that the Enforcement Hall disciples would not protect him or share any treasures they found.
• Su Jiu stayed behind to confront Red Maple, while Qi Song, Li Ran, and Lan Fang Ziyi entered Heavenly Cloud Mountain with Cheng Yu following Red Maple's suggestion to go ahead.
• Su Jiu revealed that she suspected Red Maple after finding a dead demon-seed in Xia Yun and deduced that Red Maple had used the trees to watch worshippers and tested seeds on two disciples.
• Red Maple defended himself by saying no one had died or remained injured because of his schemes, and Su Jiu warned that she would return to arrest him if he harmed innocents.
• Red Maple decided to abandon his seed research and focus on taking Cheng Yu out to see the world, while reflecting that Cheng Yu was the pillar of his humanity.
• Yun Huanling circled the same part of Heavenly Cloud Mountain for days, overheard two natural spirits mocking him, and shut off his hearing rather than ask them how to proceed.

Su Jiu and her companions entered Heavenly Cloud Mountain, where dense innate origin qi boosted her cultivation and Little Green explained the mountain’s origins and restrictions. As they climbed, Su Jiu spotted nature spirits gathering around her, and one red-clothed spirit quietly ran toward her.

• Su Jiu entered Heavenly Cloud Mountain and felt its innate origin qi rush into her body, slightly raising her cultivation.
• Little Green explained that Heavenly Cloud Mountain was a semi-immortal artifact whose spring could improve magic treasures, and that visitors who stayed for a full year would be expelled by its artifact spirit.
• Su Jiu rejoined Thirteen, Da Lu, Xiao Lu, Qi Song, and Li Ran, and the group began climbing toward the summit and its spring.
• Su Jiu sensed an unfamiliar spirit and fired an Ice Spike, but the spirit escaped; Little Green explained that the mountain could nurture nature spirits.
• As the group climbed, Su Jiu saw more spirits watching her, while a gray-clothed spirit and a yellow-clothed spirit fought over the gray-clothed spirit’s interest in her.
• The red-clothed spirit slipped away from her companions and ran toward Su Jiu.

Su Jiu found Red Little Fir on Heavenly Cloud Mountain and learned that Yun Huanling had been trapped circling the mountainside by a barrier that thwarted flying cultivators. She reunited with him and Lan Fang Ziyi, leaving the group together with serious business still to discuss.

• Red Little Fir asked to follow Su Jiu, agreed she could not leave her friends forever, and accompanied her while she remained on Heavenly Cloud Mountain.
• Red Little Fir asked her forest friends about the Taiji Attire cultivator, and one spirit explained that Yun Huanling had flown around the mountain seventeen times because a barrier trapped flying travelers in an illusion.
• Su Jiu and Red Little Fir found Yun Huanling asleep while meditating as spirits mocked him and bet on whether he would make an eighteenth lap.
• Lan Fang Ziyi woke Yun Huanling and scolded him, then revealed that Su Jiu had witnessed his embarrassing nap.
• Yun Huanling blamed his secondary personality for getting trapped, but Su Jiu told him to get up because they had serious business to discuss.

Su Jiu and her companions crossed Heavenly Cloud Mountain’s natural barriers while strange demonic and ghostly visitors entered the mountain in search of the Spring Water. At the summit, Su Jiu reunited with Murong Feng and Murong Ye, and Yun Huanling’s companion challenged Murong Feng over his barbed remarks.

• Yun Huanling learned that the mountain spirits could see and hear him, and the group continued onward as the spirits teased him for fearing to walk alone.
• Li Ran and Qi Song gathered spirit plants while Su Jiu recalled that Heavenly Cloud Mountain might be part of a magic treasure, explaining the absence of demon beasts.
• A demonic cultivator with pitch-black eyes entered the mountain asking for Su Jiu, and two ghost cultivators followed her in search of the Spring Water.
• The ghost cultivators passed two injured cultivators, who stopped to recover after High Ponytail activated a formation.
• Su Jiu and her companions reached the summit and encountered Murong Feng and Murong Ye outside a courtyard.
• Murong Feng made a sarcastic remark about Su Jiu, and one of her companions confronted him while Su Jiu walked away.

Su Jiu and the others entered a spring filled with Innate Origin Qi, where they left their Magic Treasures to develop spirits. Yun Huanling and Su Jiu received separate treatment from the mysterious presence in the courtyard, and Su Jiu left her Sacred Artifacts and their spirits behind before emerging to find everyone waiting outside.

• Su Jiu discovered seven spring eyes and Magic Treasures nearing spirit awakening, while she and Little Green discussed how Innate Origin Qi affected their growth.
• Thirteen, Yun Huanling, and the others tossed their Life-Bound Treasures and other Magic Treasures into the spring, and Su Jiu explained that the surrounding plants were nourished by Innate Origin Qi.
• A mysterious voice sent everyone except Su Jiu and Yun Huanling outside, then revealed that Yun Huanling's Life-Bound Treasure had developed a spirit, which he named Little Black.
• The mysterious presence urged Su Jiu to leave the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl and Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword in the spring, and she agreed along with their Artifact Spirits.
• Su Jiu emerged through the courtyard gate in view of the others, prompting the Murong brothers to complain about her special treatment, while Hong Xiaoshan said he had known the lord would like her.

Su Jiu and the others waited for Yun Huanling while the artifact spirit of Heavenly Cloud Mountain kept him inside, but a demonic cultivator soon attacked them. Su Jiu recognized the attacker as another strand of the divine sense that had controlled Xia Yun, and the woman and the strand began plotting to kill everyone before their crimes could be exposed.

• Hong Xiaoshan explained that Heavenly Cloud Mountain's master was its artifact spirit, and Su Jiu understood why the mountain had been kept outside the Azure Realm.
• Lan Fang Ziyi asked Su Jiu about Yun Huanling, who had not come out, and Su Jiu suggested the artifact spirit had singled him out for a private conversation.
• Murong Ye said Murong Feng's magic treasure had guided him to Heavenly Cloud Mountain after it began reacting again.
• A demonic cultivator arrived, and Su Jiu recognized the attacking divine sense as the one that had controlled Xia Yun; the attacker threatened her because her Thunder-Attracting Formation could kill the woman's soul too.
• The divine sense attacked Su Jiu, who stopped the woman with an Ice Wall, then warned the group as the demonic qi formed scores of claws.
• The woman complained that Heavenly Cloud Mountain's purifying energy was burning her, but the divine sense urged her to kill everyone to hide what she had done and protect her place in the Xia Household.

Su Jiu fought off the strengthened demonic claws and realized that the woman’s black mist contained curse arts tied to the schemes against her. The woman’s controller revealed that she was Xia Yun’s mother, then drove her cultivation beyond her body’s limits as Su Jiu prepared to fight her.

• Su Jiu ordered the others to defend themselves while she used Ice-Colored Rotation to purify the demonic claws, and Murong Feng noticed that the claws she dispersed did not reform.
• The woman emerged from the black mist, which became curse markings on her body, and Su Jiu suspected that the same person was behind her and Xia Yun.
• The strand of divine sense revealed that the woman was Xia Yun’s mother and claimed she had agreed to surrender her body in exchange for help taking revenge on Su Jiu.
• Su Jiu challenged the controller, and the woman’s cultivation surged past nascent soul realm great perfection into the out-of-body realm despite her dantian and nascent soul beginning to fracture.
• The woman’s cultivation stopped at the out-of-body middle stage as Qi Song recognized that her body could not be saved and Li Ran rebuked him for thinking about treatment.

Su Jiu struggled against Xia Yun's mother, whose strength had been forced beyond her limits by a curse script and a strand of divine sense. After Little Gift taught her to use innate origin qi to transform her arts, Su Jiu gained the upper hand, and the chapter ended as the others' life-bound treasures arrived and artifact spirits were born.

• Su Jiu warned her companions that Xia Yun's mother had become dangerously powerful and reinforced their formation with talismans.
• Thirteen, Da Lu, Xiao Lu, Qi Song, Li Ran, Murong Feng, and Lan Fang Ziyi began summoning their life-bound treasures to help Su Jiu, while Murong Ye refused.
• Su Jiu found that her innate origin qi could not directly harm Xia Yun's mother and began to run low on spiritual qi as the woman's resentful attacks intensified.
• Little Gift told Su Jiu to use innate origin qi in place of spiritual qi when casting her arts, and Su Jiu adapted her ice techniques into piercing frost blossoms.
• Su Jiu's frost blossoms wounded Xia Yun's mother and pierced her body, but before Su Jiu could finish her, the summoned treasures arrived and artifact spirits were born.

Su Jiu defeated a woman whose divine sense had been controlling her, then learned that all her companions’ Life-Bound Treasures had gained artifact spirits while Murong Ye’s spirit induction had failed. As Su Jiu waited for her own treasure to return, Hong Xiaoshan and the Snow Sprite’s rivalry drew a crowd of spirits and a nervous betting pool.

• Su Jiu killed the woman and destroyed the escaping strand of divine sense with a Thunder-Attracting Formation, injuring the man who had sent it and provoking him to vow to eliminate cultivators with innate origin qi.
• Su Jiu used her innate origin qi to clear the gray haze and retrieve the formation Talismans, then told Thirteen and the others that their Life-Bound Treasures had developed artifact spirits.
• Murong Ye received his Life-Bound Treasure and discovered that it had no artifact spirit and that none of his other Magic Treasures had been repaired or improved.
• Hong Xiaoshan told Su Jiu that two more strange people had come up the mountain, then argued with the Snow Sprite over Su Jiu’s affection while spirits placed bets on whom she would favor.
• Hong Xiaoshan and the Snow Sprite confronted the little fatty running the betting pool, who admitted that the wagers were tied; the Snow Sprite demanded to know whether it was sure.

Su Jiu returned to the courtyard and agreed to try to help the Ghost Market draw a spirit into the Heavenly Demon-Subduing Pestle. She opened the gate and entered again, while Murong Ye was thrown back when he tried to follow.

• Su Jiu told Hong Xiaoshan that the two ghost cultivators were people she had met before, then learned they had come seeking the Heavenly Pool.
• The ghost cultivators asked Su Jiu to help their Heavenly Demon-Subduing Pestle, a sacred artifact intended to protect the Yin River Continent, and she accepted it without promising she could enter the courtyard.
• Murong Ye privately mocked Su Jiu for helping the Ghost Market, but Murong Feng argued that she was helping protect the Azure Realm.
• Su Jiu gently pushed the courtyard gate open and disappeared into the white mist inside.
• Murong Ye tried to follow Su Jiu through the open gate, but a ripple flung him back, and Murong Feng helped him to his feet.

After a year trapped in Heavenly Cloud Mountain, Yun Huanling and Su Jiu fell into a dangerous pool, while the mountain vanished and scattered their companions across the Azure Realm. As demonic cultivators prepared to advance from the occupied Vast Heaven Continent, Xia Jue explained that the Azure Tide Sect and its allies would avoid openly leading the response.

• Yun Huanling fell through the void into a pool, dragging Su Jiu in with him, and both were overwhelmed by the pool's strange power and fell asleep.
• After a year without anyone returning, Heavenly Cloud Mountain disappeared and its visitors were transported to different places; Hongguang assured Lan Fang Ziyi that his junior brother was alive and destined for great fortune.
• The demonic cultivators had occupied the Vast Heaven Continent and were preparing to invade the Spiritflight Continent, while many local sects and clans underestimated the threat.
• Feng Qi questioned whether Su Jiu's warning about unrest was reliable, and Xia Jue explained that the Enforcement Hall, Azure Tide Sect, and Dark Pavilion would not openly lead the coming conflict.
• Xia Jue suggested that the disgraced Heavenly Dawn Sect could be encouraged to lead, while the Azure Tide Sect controlled events from behind the scenes; Feng Qi worried that the Heavenly Dawn Sect would receive all the credit.

Yun Huanling awoke after spending two years unconscious in Heavenly Cloud Mountain’s pool and discovered that he had advanced to the Spirit Transformation Stage. Su Jiu remained unconscious and dangerously cold, while the mysterious voice instructed him to keep her in the water.

• Xia Jue told Feng Qi that the Azure Tide Sect could take credit for success while leaving the Heavenly Dawn Sect to shoulder blame for failure.
• Rumors in Peace City revealed that Su Jiu had stayed on Heavenly Cloud Mountain for more than a year after the Ghost Market entrusted her with the Heavenly Demon-Subduing Pestle; Yu Jin confirmed that she was the disciple at the center of the story.
• After two years in the pool, Yun Huanling awoke, found Su Jiu unconscious and freezing, and returned her to the water on the mysterious voice’s advice.
• The voice told Yun Huanling that two years had passed and urged him to examine his body; he discovered that his nascent soul had transformed into a primordial spirit and that he had reached the Spirit Transformation Stage.
• Yun Huanling doubted the voice’s explanation, even after realizing that the golden ring of light in his dantian was his primordial spirit.

Yun Huanling learned that the spring’s innate origin qi had helped him advance to Spirit Transformation, while the mysterious voice hinted that his missing memories and other abnormalities might have a deeper cause. Su Jiu remained unconscious as her cultivation method advanced and her body began changing again, leaving Yun Huanling to wonder whether his own strange condition was connected to her.

• The voice told Yun Huanling that he had reached Spirit Transformation and would face tribulation lightning once he left Heavenly Cloud Mountain, then revealed that Su Jiu was advancing too.
• Yun Huanling suffered chest pain as the voice explained that innate origin qi in the spring could lend him strength, although he could not produce or control it himself.
• The voice said Su Jiu absorbed innate origin qi directly and would have a chance to wake once she reached Spirit Transformation.
• Yun Huanling considered his forgotten dreams, memory gaps, unexplained chest pain, and rapid advancement, and wondered how much his master and lineage knew.
• Su Jiu recalled enduring prolonged pain as innate origin qi flooded her body, and Jade Moisture, Ice Clarity advanced to its final layer before her cultivation rose again.
• Su Jiu advanced a minor stage, after which her body became unstable and its temperature began to change abnormally.

After three years unconscious in Heavenly Cloud Mountain, Su Jiu awakened and discovered she had advanced to spirit transformation. She and Yun Huanling confronted the mountain’s artifact spirit, who explained their ordeals and left Yun Huanling’s unusual connection to his past knowledge unresolved.

• While unconscious, Su Jiu dreamed of a ruined Nine Provinces Continent where monsters slaughtered a mother and daughter, then witnessed ancient sects marching toward the Linnan Region.
• Su Jiu woke, examined her body, and realized she had reached spirit transformation without yet facing tribulation lightning.
• Su Jiu seized Heavenly Cloud Mountain’s artifact spirit, and Yun Huanling learned that the seemingly mysterious voice belonged to the small white ball.
• The artifact spirit admitted that his weakness had trapped Yun Huanling in the Void Space and caused him to fall into the spring, but said rules prevented him from explaining why he had drawn Yun Huanling in earlier.
• Su Jiu learned that she had been unconscious for three years and questioned whether the artifact spirit had engineered her ordeal; he insisted it had all been accidental.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling learned that the Azure Realm was becoming unstable and that the vanished Heaven-Connecting Tower might hold clues to stabilizing it. After their treasures were strengthened and gained new spirits, they prepared to leave Heavenly Cloud Mountain, though Su Jiu realized she had forgotten something.

• The artifact spirit warned Su Jiu and Yun Huanling that the Azure Realm was growing unstable and said clues to stabilizing it might lie in what a mighty expert had lost during an upheaval ten thousand years earlier.
• The artifact spirit explained that Su Jiu's dream came from divine breath infused into Heavenly Cloud Mountain's Innate Origin Qi, and that she might continue seeing images of the past until the divine breath faded.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling connected their earlier discoveries to the past and learned that the Linnan Region had once contained the Heaven-Connecting Tower.
• The Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl lit seven beads, the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword gained great strength, and the Ice Silk and Ice Cloud Hairpin manifested their spirits before returning to their treasures.
• Su Jiu teased Little Pearl about its changes, congratulated it on improving, and prepared to have the artifact spirit send them out before realizing she had forgotten something.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling arrived together in Sand City’s territory and faced a joint spirit transformation lightning tribulation. After three days and twenty-three bolts, the tribulation still intensified, leaving them and the city’s demonic cultivators waiting for its next strikes.

• Su Jiu retrieved the Heavenly Demon-Subduing Pestle, then she and Yun Huanling bowed toward where Little Green had looked and departed.
• Tribulation lightning struck the Sand Demon Wolves near Sand City, gathering into dark clouds that triggered the city’s detection alarm.
• The city lord ordered a message requesting spirit transformation reinforcements after sensing the tribulation’s immense power.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling appeared together on a barren mountain, where Su Jiu set up talismans and a formation as Yun Huanling brought out his Life-Bound Treasure.
• Su Jiu explained that her strongest five-nine tribulation lightning had joined Yun Huanling’s tribulation, and they endured more than twenty bolts over three days.
• Sand City’s demonic cultivators feared the continuing lightning, which had already wiped out the Sand Demon Wolves and blasted the barren mountain apart.

Yao Yan rejected the other demon sects’ attempt to seize the Succubus Sect’s territory and treasures, then let the Night Demon Sect envoy pile on increasingly greedy demands. The chapter ended as Yao Yan mocked the envoy and raised her hand.

• The Night Demon Sect envoy demanded that the Succubus Sect surrender its share of the Vast Heaven Continent, while the Grand Elder refused.
• The envoy revealed that many Succubus Sect disciples had secretly joined other sects and pressured Yao Yan to accept their terms.
• Yao Yan burned the contract and wounded the envoy when she challenged her, despite the threat of the Night Demon Sect’s two void refinement Grand Elders.
• The envoy demanded the Succubus Sect’s supreme treasure, then asked for the Night Demon Sect’s other treasures and even the Succubus Sect treasury key.
• Yao Yan called the envoy a pig-brained beauty and raised her hand.

Yao Yan killed the demonic sect envoys and traveled toward Sand City, where Su Jiu and Yun Huanling were enduring a deadly tribulation. As Yun Huanling’s condition worsened, he secretly prepared to sacrifice himself, while observers at the Heavenly Secret Sect argued over Su Jiu’s role in his altered fate.

• Yao Yan killed the envoys in the Succubus Sect’s main hall and ordered the Grand Elder to investigate suspected traitors and kill anyone who had betrayed the sect.
• Yao Yan received a message and flew toward Sand City, where he felt the pressure of an unusually powerful tribulation lightning bolt.
• On the fourth day of the tribulation, Su Jiu noticed Yun Huanling growing pale and suffering recurring chest pain while they took turns sustaining the formation.
• Yun Huanling asked Su Jiu to shrink the formation if he could no longer hold on, but she refused to abandon him; he then claimed he might survive the heavenly thunder and recalled a strange dream.
• Yun Huanling privately confirmed with A Huan that disappearing could weaken the tribulation, though it would prevent him from returning, and decided to proceed with their second plan.
• At the Heavenly Secret Sect’s Distant Lookout Platform, the Yun Household’s Fifth Elder blamed Su Jiu for Yun Huanling’s changed Fate Star, while the Heavenly Secret Sect’s Grand Elder defended her contributions to the Azure Realm.