Chapter Summaries

Hongguang discovered that Yun Huanling’s fate was tied to Su Jiu, while Yao Yan watched a seven-day tribulation over Sand City and suspected it was a five-nine tribulation. As the final lightning strikes approached, Su Jiu struggled to protect the fading Yun Huanling, and the forty-fifth strike brought an unexpected change.

• Hongguang confirmed that Yun Huanling’s Fate Star retained a chance of survival through Su Jiu, and the Heavenly Secret Sect elders rejected the Fifth Elder’s suggestion to seize her from the Azure Tide Sect.
• Yao Yan arrived in Sand City, learned the heavenly thunder threatened the city, and chose to watch the tribulation as demonic sects gathered nearby to demand answers and pursue the Succubus Sect’s treasure.
• Yao Yan suspected the prolonged storm was five-nine tribulation lightning and wondered which cultivator was undergoing it.
• Yun Huanling gave Su Jiu his Storage Ring as his condition worsened, while Su Jiu used formations, Talismans, and Magic Treasures to shield them from the remaining strikes.
• Su Jiu endured the forty-fifth lightning strike on the seventh day, but another change began as the forty-second strike gathered, leaving Yao Yan expecting a powerful cultivator to emerge.

Su Jiu survived her advancement tribulation, but Yun Huanling sacrificed himself to save her, and A Huan revealed that she knew who he was. Meanwhile, Yao Yan refused Sand City’s request to attack the newly advanced cultivator as demonic sects gathered forces to hunt Su Jiu.

• Su Jiu exhausted herself setting up defensive formations against the final bolts of Heavenly Thunder, while Yun Huanling remained unconscious beside her.
• A mysterious bolt diverted part of the final strike, but Yun Huanling embraced Su Jiu and vanished as the lightning dissipated; Su Jiu awakened to find her advancement successful.
• A Huan opened his eyes and told Su Jiu, “I am Yun Huanling too”; she said she knew, then walked away with him through the burning mountain.
• Yao Yan told Sand City’s City Lord that the newly advanced spirit transformation cultivator was too dangerous to attack, and predicted other demonic sects would act against her.
• Demonic cultivators assembled near Sand City to kill the Dao Cultivator, and the Night Demon Sect’s forces moved toward the mountain after a powerful white-haired man arrived.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling were intercepted by Night Demon Sect cultivators in the Savage Wilderness and fought their Spirit Transformation seniors, Si Lishen and a demonic woman. The chapter ended as Yun Huanling’s hidden star-line technique began draining the woman’s power and sending it toward the illusory stars.

• Su Jiu identified their location as the Savage Wilderness and realized demonic cultivators were approaching to intercept them.
• Yun Huanling fought the demonic woman while Su Jiu faced Si Lishen, who recognized both cultivators and their treasures.
• Su Jiu and Si Lishen clashed in a prolonged stalemate as their attacks scattered and injured the watching demonic disciples.
• Yun Huanling used the Nine-Bend Compass’s star lines to pressure the woman, who grew depleted and tried to flee.
• Yun Huanling activated the illusory stars, causing the star line embedded in the woman’s shoulder to pierce outward and draw power from her body.

Yun Huanling killed the weakened female demonic cultivator, while Su Jiu used her domain and a prepared teleportation array to escape Si Lishen with Yun Huanling. Su Jiu and Yun Huanling awoke on the outskirts of Peace City on the Spiritflight Continent, far from the Savage Wilderness.

• Yun Huanling killed the female demonic cultivator before she could deceive him, then hid his own injury.
• Su Jiu activated her Purple Ultimate attunement and used her Snowfall Domain to wound Si Lishen, but he broke the domain by manipulating her blood.
• Su Jiu pulled Yun Huanling into her prepared Teleportation Array as Si Lishen turned his attack toward him, and the array carried them away.
• Si Lishen revived the dead female demonic cultivator, while Yao Yan suffered an injury after Si Lishen detected his spying.
• Xiao Fei and her grandfather found the unconscious Su Jiu and Yun Huanling near Peace City, and Su Jiu woke and introduced them.
• Su Jiu learned that she and Yun Huanling had arrived on the Spiritflight Continent.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling learned from an old villager that the Night-Gathering Sect had driven ordinary people out of Peace City and continued to bar them from entering. The old man also revealed that Peace City had recently begun treating powerful cultivators especially well in an effort to keep them there, leaving Su Jiu suspicious of the city’s motives.

• Su Jiu persuaded the old man and Xiao Fei to take her and the unconscious Yun Huanling to their home in Peaceful Village.
• Su Jiu questioned the old man privately, and he explained that the Night-Gathering Sect had expelled ordinary residents from Peace City to attract cultivators.
• Yun Huanling woke, condemned the sect’s policy, and recognized the Night-Gathering Sect as an old enemy of theirs.
• Su Jiu asked about recent changes in Peace City, and the old man said it had begun giving special treatment to powerful cultivators and members of major sects to keep them in the city.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling left the village after learning the Night-Gathering Sect was enticing cultivators to stay, but they encountered villagers gathered around Zhuzi, who appeared dead yet remained warm. Tongzi explained that a fox demon lured Zhuzi into a phantom temple, and Su Jiu learned Zhuzi had been found unconscious afterward.

• Su Jiu deduced that the Night-Gathering Sect was offering cultivators benefits because it needed them but could not force them to remain, then decided to report the matter to the Enforcement Hall instead of investigating further with Yun Huanling.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling came across Zhuzi's mother crying over her apparently lifeless son, whose warm body and supple limbs baffled the village physician.
• Su Jiu recognized that Tongzi's inability to speak came from a Speech-Sealing Technique and used spiritual qi to restore his voice.
• Tongzi recounted how he and Zhuzi repeatedly encountered a mysterious temple on their way home from Peace City, where a fox-headed demon ensnared Zhuzi with an illusion of a beautiful woman.
• Tongzi described being compelled to watch a banquet of foxes, while Zhuzi danced with them and was taken into an inner room; afterward, the temple vanished and Zhuzi lay unconscious nearby.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling investigated Tongzi’s account of a fox-like illusion and concluded that someone had staged it to frame the Fox Tribe. They then learned that a cultivator had secretly taken heart blood from Tongzi in exchange for entry to Peace City, and Su Jiu refused to undo the bargain.

• Su Jiu questioned Tongzi’s account and reasoned that the soul-taker had deliberately impersonated a Fox Demon to frame the Fox Tribe.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling inspected the place where Tongzi had seen the illusion but found no trace of demon aura.
• Tongzi explained that he and Zhuzi had entered Peace City after giving fingertip blood to a cultivator collecting blood from a hundred people.
• Yun Huanling warned Tongzi that the cultivator might have secretly taken his heart blood, and Su Jiu’s Otherworldly Eyes confirmed that Tongzi had lost vitality around his heart.
• Tongzi asked Su Jiu to recover his heart blood, but she refused because he had agreed to the exchange without coercion.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling followed the Peaceful Village clues into Peace City, where they sought the best-selling Fox Demon Tales and encountered a confrontation over the book. The chapter ended with Yun Huanling dodging Young Lady Tan’s attacks inside the shop, setting her up to pay for the damage.

• Su Jiu questioned Tongzi about the white-robed cultivator who had taken his heart blood, and Tongzi described a black plaque, a mole above the man’s right ear, and a scroll.
• Su Jiu told Zhuzi’s mother to take Zhuzi’s body back to the village while she investigated Peace City, then sent a Message Talisman to the Enforcement Hall as Yun Huanling contacted the Heavenly Secret Sect.
• Wei Yu and Yun Chao arrived in Peace City, noticed Su Jiu and Yun Huanling entering a bookshop, and followed them inside.
• The shop owner offered Su Jiu Fox Demon Tales, but Young Lady Tan seized the books and refused to pay the stated price set by Master Spirit Selection.
• When the owner warned that Master Spirit Selection was connected to the City Lord, Young Lady Tan demanded that Su Jiu pay, then attacked Yun Huanling after he mocked her.
• Yun Huanling dodged Young Lady Tan’s whip among the books, while Su Jiu learned that Peace City’s rules made whoever struck first responsible for all damage.

Su Jiu and Yun Huanling reunited with Yun Chao and Wei Yu in Peace City after Yun Huanling bound Tan Ling'er during a bookshop brawl. The group connected reports of soul separation to their investigations and planned to visit the City Lord's Residence, while Tan Ling'er was locked up by her father.

• Yun Chao stopped Yun Huanling's fight with Tan Ling'er, and Yun Huanling bound her after she attacked first.
• Su Jiu told the bookshop owner to bill the Tan Family for the damage, then left with Yun Huanling, Yun Chao, and Wei Yu.
• Yun Huanling explained how he and Su Jiu had reached Spirit Transformation, and Yun Chao said he and Wei Yu were investigating demonic cultivators infiltrating the Spiritflight Continent.
• Su Jiu told Yun Chao and Wei Yu about the soul-separation case and her suspicion that someone was using the fox-demon story as a cover; Wei Yu shared reports of similar incidents in Peace City.
• Wei Yu said the City Lord would likely invite Su Jiu and Yun Huanling, and the group agreed to investigate the City Lord's Residence together after receiving their invitations.
• Tan Ling'er's father punished her for offending the City Lord and wrecking the bookshop, then ordered servants to lock her in her room.

Tan Ling'er discovered a hidden page in Fox Demon Tales and soon fell into soul-separation syndrome, while Su Jiu traced the mysterious illness to the missing book. With Zhuzi facing the same condition and only five days left to save him, Su Jiu and her companions pursued the connection to Fox Demon Tales.

• Tan Ling'er read Fox Demon Tales while confined and found a hidden layer in its final page.
• Family Head Tan discovered that Tan Ling'er had stopped breathing, and the Tan Family sought healers throughout Peace City.
• Su Jiu confirmed that Tan Ling'er had soul-separation syndrome and found that Fox Demon Tales was missing from her room and Storage Ring.
• A Medicine Gate disciple explained that Tan Linger's soul had to be recovered within seven days and suggested investigating people she had recently offended.
• Su Jiu returned to Yun Huanling and Wei Yu, explaining that Zhuzi had only a little over five days left and that Fox Demon Tales was connected to the soul separations.

Su Jiu and her companions entered the City Lord's Residence, where the city lord asked them to help protect Peace City from the demonic cultivators threatening Spiritflight Continent. Elsewhere in the residence, the painting spirit learned that her master had approved the boy's killings and that her old promise to spare innocents had been a pretense.

• The boy told the painting spirit that their master had approved his killings, dismissed her concerns, and warned her that she was useful but replaceable.
• Su Jiu, Yun Huanling, Wei Yu, and Yun Chao arrived at the City Lord's Residence and found it crowded with cultivators who had been invited to stay there.
• The city lord welcomed the group and explained that she had gathered cultivators because demonic forces might attack Spiritflight Continent and the Night-Gathering Sect would not protect Peace City.
• Yun Chao questioned whether the city lord had supplied The Fox Demon Tale, while Su Jiu asked why so many cultivators were staying in the residence.
• The city lord offered to lodge Su Jiu and her companions in the residence or arrange accommodations elsewhere.

Su Jiu and her companions accepted the City Lord’s offer to stay in the residence, where Yun Huanling’s clash with the other cultivators gave Su Jiu a chance to use a Great Restoration Pill to draw out potential threats. By midnight, Yun Huanling had gathered contestants’ names, while Su Jiu watched to see who showed greed and who remained unmoved.

• Su Jiu agreed to stay inside the City Lord’s Residence, and Wei Yu noticed that its servants seemed unusually inconspicuous.
• After other cultivators mocked Su Jiu and Yun Huanling, Yun Huanling challenged their arrogance and accepted a proposed arena match.
• Su Jiu gave Yun Huanling a Great Restoration Pill to use as a wager, and the cultivators’ reactions revealed greed while some servants and guests remained indifferent.
• Yun Huanling announced that contestants must leave their names on a Jade Slip, and the crowd rushed to sign up for a chance at the pill.
• Yun Huanling invited absent cultivators to register by midnight, then spent the afternoon receiving visitors until the last one left shortly before midnight.

Su Jiu and her companions discovered that the Painting Spirit had trapped them in a spatial illusion connected to Tale of the Fox Demon, while Wei Yu prepared a plan to investigate the green-robed man. The chapter ended with the Tan Family confronting the City Lord over his daughter’s stolen soul and the book that supposedly came from his residence.

• Wei Yu left to get another list, and Su Jiu arrived to take Yun Chao and Yun Huanling out that night.
• The green-robed man discussed his injury and need for blood with the Book Spirit and Painting Spirit, then investigated a spiritual-qi disturbance near his room.
• Su Jiu recognized the green-robed man and the Painting Spirit, and she tore apart Tale of the Fox Demon to break the spatial illusion surrounding her and Yun Huanling.
• Su Jiu reasoned that someone had planted Tale of the Fox Demon to lure Zhuzi into a trap, while she remained uncertain how the stolen souls helped heal the green-robed man.
• Wei Yu returned with a jade slip, and he and Su Jiu explained their plans to Yun Chao and Yun Huanling as the Great Restoration Pill competition began.
• The head of the Tan Family brought gifts to the City Lord and asked him to spare his daughter, but the City Lord denied that his residence had consigned Tale of the Fox Demon.

The City Lord investigated the deaths linked to overpriced copies of Tale of the Fox Demon while the Green-Robed Soul asked the Painting Spirit to choose whether to earn her freedom. At the arena, Su Jiu and her companions used the Great Restoration Pill competition to identify hidden demonic cultivators, including Wang Daqing and Li Xiaoyan, and decided to investigate them without alerting their allies.

• The Tan Family Head told the City Lord that several people who had bought Tale of the Fox Demon had died in circumstances like his daughter's, prompting her to investigate the bookseller and promise to restore his daughter's soul if her soul had been taken.
• The Green-Robed Soul offered the Painting Spirit freedom in exchange for a task that required her genuine willingness, and she asked what he needed her to do.
• The Green-Robed Soul explained to Book Spirit that Su Jiu and Yun Huanling were using the Great Restoration Pill competition to identify demonic cultivators among the cultivators in Peace City, then ordered Book Spirit to pause their plans.
• Su Jiu used her otherworldly eyes to identify suspicious cultivators, and Yun Huanling reported that Wang Daqing and Li Xiaoyan showed no interest even when offered Lesser Restoration Pills.
• Wei Yu confirmed that Wang Daqing and Li Xiaoyan had not entered the competition, and Su Jiu told Yun Chao not to test them yet because she did not want to alert them.
• Yun Huanling said he had befriended another suspicious person by giving him two Lesser Restoration Pills.

Su Jiu and her companions continued investigating the missing souls and the demonic cultivators infiltrating Peace City. The City Lord revealed that someone had used her Spirit Seal to distribute Fox Demon Tale, asked the group for help, and heard Su Jiu disclose her own connection to the book.

• Su Jiu explained that she had used a Great Restoration Pill to expose possible demonic cultivators and said the group needed to find the missing souls before acting.
• The City Lord learned that a handsome young man had distributed Fox Demon Tale using her Spirit Seal, then Silver Star identified Su Jiu and her companions and advised her that they might share her goals.
• Su Jiu and the others returned to the City Lord's Residence after discussing the missing souls, and the City Lord asked Wei Yu why they had come to Peace City.
• The City Lord admitted that she suspected demonic cultivators had infiltrated her forces and asked Su Jiu and her companions to help uncover them.
• The City Lord denied any connection to Fox Demon Tale, and Su Jiu said she had argued with a female cultivator about the book at a shop before entering the residence.

Su Jiu investigated Yuan Yu and the City Lord’s ties to The Fox Demon's Tale, then learned the City Lord had joined forces with Yuan Yu despite suspecting he was a heretical cultivator. The chapter ended when Wang Daqing revealed himself as a demonic cultivator at the arena, with Yuan Yu standing beside the City Lord and confronting Su Jiu from afar.

• The City Lord asked Su Jiu and her companions to investigate the demonic cultivators and the hidden author of The Fox Demon's Tale, and Su Jiu questioned her about the residence’s cultivators and Spirit Seal.
• Su Jiu identified Yuan Yu as a suspect after learning his cultivation and injuries, then explained that she had been testing whether the City Lord was colluding with him.
• Su Jiu visited Yuan Yu and found the painting spirit, the boy, and the black miasma gone; Purple Ultimate identified the boy as the artifact spirit of Yuan Yu’s Life-Bound Treasure.
• The wind spirit reported that Yuan Yu had collapsed, revealed himself as a heretical cultivator to the City Lord, and secured her cooperation by swearing a heart-demon oath to defend Peace City in exchange for sacrifices to heal his injuries.
• Wang Daqing exposed himself as a demonic cultivator near the arena, while Su Jiu saw the City Lord and Yuan Yu beside him and Yuan Yu mouthed a greeting to her.

Yuan Yu’s attempt to turn the City Lord and the cultivators against Su Jiu’s group unraveled when they exposed and killed the demonic cultivators hidden in the residence. With hostages taken and Yuan Yu displaying his Life-Bound Treasure to deny being a heretical cultivator, the City Lord called the conflict a misunderstanding, leaving the captives and demonic cultivators unaddressed.

• Yuan Yu’s explosive bead killed Wang Daqing after he reflexively revealed his demonic cultivation, prompting suspicion toward Li Xiaoyan and her companions.
• Li Xiaoyan fled while her admirer was wounded by a cultivator claiming he was testing him, and Su Jiu treated the man and condemned the attack.
• Yuan Yu cast doubt on Su Jiu’s group, but they revealed their ranked Life-Bound Treasures, trapped the demonic cultivators behind a barrier, and killed several of them.
• The remaining demonic cultivators seized Dao cultivators as hostages, forcing Su Jiu’s group to pause as Wei Yu announced their mission to eliminate demonic cultivators.
• Yuan Yu produced his jade brush as proof he was a Painting Cultivator, and the City Lord called the conflict a misunderstanding despite the unresolved hostages.

Su Jiu used her Snowfall Domain to freeze the battle in Peace City and destroy most of the demonic cultivators, then revealed that Yuan Yu possessed a second Life-Bound Treasure. After the city lord identified it as a strange book containing lifelike portraits, Su Jiu recognized it as the Soul-Locking Book and demanded that Yuan Yu hand it over.

• The city lord offered rewards for killing demonic cultivators, prompting rogue cultivators to attack even as the demonic cultivators threatened their hostages.
• Su Jiu unleashed her Snowfall Domain, immobilizing everyone and turning demonic cultivators to ash while Yun Huanling broke Yuan Yu's arm.
• Su Jiu explained that she had learned the demonic cultivators' plans and Yuan Yu's secrets from the wind spirit.
• The city lord revealed that Yuan Yu possessed a red, sinister book as his second Life-Bound Treasure, and Wei Yu identified it as the legendary Soul-Locking Book.
• Su Jiu demanded the Soul-Locking Book from Yuan Yu, who refused, and she shattered bones in his hand.

Su Jiu restrained Yuan Yu rather than risk the souls trapped in his Soul-Locking Book, and told him she would decide the next day whether to let him go. Yuan Yu then revealed that his heart-demon oath meant nothing to him as a heretical cultivator, leaving the City Lord to regret trusting him as the chapter ended with both sides holding back their next moves.

• Yuan Yu taunted Su Jiu with the souls in the Soul-Locking Book, and she refused to kill him or accept his proposed bargains, saying she would give him her answer tomorrow.
• Su Jiu ended her Snowfall Domain but kept a barrier around the City Lord's Residence, while the cultivators realized Yuan Yu had been killing people who disappeared from the residence.
• Several cultivators asked Su Jiu to let them leave, but she said the barrier would open on its own tomorrow before departing with Yun Huanling and the others.
• The City Lord confronted Yuan Yu about his promise to defend the city, and he admitted he intended to break it and showed her the resentful qi that made him immune to the heart-demon oath.
• The City Lord left Yuan Yu's room, determined to see whether Su Jiu would let him go, while Yuan Yu watched the door after she was gone.

Su Jiu exposed Yuan Yu as the culprit behind the imprisoned souls and seized the Soul-Locking Book when he tried to escape. She purified the book and destroyed its evil spirit, leaving Yuan Yu to suffer the backlash while fleeing.

• The Book Spirit questioned Yuan Yu about whether he would hand it over, and Yuan Yu promised he could summon it back even if Su Jiu took it.
• The cultivators spent an anxious night behind barriers, then gathered to watch Su Jiu and Yuan Yu meet the next morning.
• Yuan Yu handed over the Soul-Locking Book while trying to escape with a smoke bomb, but Su Jiu cleared the miasma and captured the book.
• Su Jiu bound the evil spirit with the Ice Silk Net, opened the book, and used innate origin qi to purify it and release the imprisoned souls.
• The evil spirit pleaded with Yuan Yu for help, but received no answer and dissipated; Yuan Yu suffered backlash and was identified as a heretical cultivator by a passerby.