Chapter Summaries

Da Shen reprimanded Xiao Shen for failing to recognize Su Jiu’s authority as the next Enforcement Hall Leader. Su Jiu’s group reached the Demon-Subduing Land, where they found its barrier thinning and its boundaries expanding, and Chu Luohen began to suspect Dao Lord Qing Ci had concealed himself—or been erased from the group’s memories.

• Da Shen reminded Xiao Shen that Su Jiu’s command token and succession made her authority second only to Hall Master Xia.
• Su Jiu and Ning Fan reached the Demon-Subduing Land with the group and saw that its barrier was nearly collapsed.
• Yang Guo explained that the barrier had been thinning, while Ning Fan and the Buddha Child confirmed that the Demon-Subduing Land had expanded.
• Su Jiu led the group through the barrier, followed by Yun Huanling, the Buddha Child, and the Enforcement Hall and Shadow Pavilion members.
• Chu Luohen noticed Dao Lord Qing Ci at the rear and realized he and the others seemed to have forgotten the senior expert’s presence.
• Chu Luohen asked Dao Lord Qing Ci why he had not intervened in the earlier mirror-world crisis and whether he had disappeared after they entered the village.

Su Jiu and her companions found the badly injured Lin Jiaojiao in the Demon-Subduing Land and learned that her cultivation had been destroyed. Lin Jiaojiao begged them to save her husband, Hu Yucheng, and as they carried her toward him, danger suddenly approached.

• Su Jiu overheard Dao Lord Qing Ci speaking with Chu Luohen and wondered why everyone had forgotten to seek his help.
• Su Jiu led her companions toward a faint cry for help, and they found Lin Jiaojiao gravely wounded.
• The Buddha Child treated Lin Jiaojiao and discovered that someone had destroyed her dantian and cultivation.
• Lin Jiaojiao woke and begged Su Jiu's group to save her husband, Hu Yucheng, so Su Jiu had Yang Guo carry her onward.
• Lin Jiaojiao said someone had given her a letter after Hu Yucheng left, but Su Jiu and the others sensed danger rushing toward them.

Su Jiu and her companions cleared traps in the woods and learned that Zuo Kexin had captured and mutilated Lin Jiaojiao. Zuo Kexin appeared as a demonic cultivator and confronted Su Jiu, who revealed that she had become a demon seed’s willing slave and feeding medium.

• Hidden blades shot from the trees, and Su Jiu’s group destroyed the mechanisms while Lin Jiaojiao explained that she had not known where they would fire.
• Su Jiu asked who had captured Lin Jiaojiao, and Lin Jiaojiao named Zuo Kexin, saying she had taken up a strange demonic cultivation technique.
• Zuo Kexin emerged from the demonic qi and warned Su Jiu to stay out of her grudge with the Mystic Dharma Immortal Sect.
• Su Jiu questioned Zuo Kexin about the demon seed consuming her foundation, and Zuo Kexin’s response exposed that she willingly served it.
• Ning Fan explained that Zuo Kexin acted as the demon seed’s medium, feeding it by eating people, leaving Yun Huanling and the disciples horrified.

Zuo Kexin revealed that the bones in the cavern belonged to disciples she had eaten, causing Lin Jiaojiao to faint before Zuo escaped. Su Jiu tracked her through the Demon-Subduing Land, and the group battled its dangerous demonized vegetation on the way.

• Zuo Kexin taunted Lin Jiaojiao by confirming she had eaten the bones in the cavern, including those of disciples who had protected Lin, and Lin fainted after spitting blood.
• Zuo Kexin dodged a Shadow Pavilion disciple's attack and fled as black smoke, while Su Jiu reassured the group that her wind spirit had marked her.
• Su Jiu led the group after Zuo Kexin, and they fought through the Demon-Subduing Land's mutated vegetation.
• Su Jiu explained that the vegetation could kill low-level cultivators and asked how Su Qingqing had survived there for decades after entering at the Golden Core Stage.
• Lin Jiaojiao told Yang Guo that her husband had discovered her following Hu Yucheng and the others before they entered the Demon-Subduing Land, but they were already approaching it.

Lin Jiaojiao explained how Zuo Kexin lured her to the Demon-Subduing Land and captured her and Hu Yucheng. Su Jiu and Yun Huanling discovered that Lin Jiaojiao’s account of the time elapsed did not match theirs, leaving her disbelieving the passage of more than ten days.

• Lin Jiaojiao received a moonlit letter bearing a bloody handprint and a ghost-face seal, then secretly left the sect to follow Hu Yucheng to the Demon-Subduing Land.
• Lin Jiaojiao told Su Jiu and the others that Zuo Kexin had captured her and Hu Yucheng after they fell into her Heavenly Net.
• Lin Jiaojiao said Hu Yucheng had broken free of his chains and tried to rescue her, then fought Zuo Kexin so Lin Jiaojiao could escape and seek help.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling questioned Lin Jiaojiao about when she was captured and realized more than ten days had passed since they parted, though she believed it had been only about two days.
• Lin Jiaojiao insisted she could still distinguish day from night, and Su Jiu gave her water to drink.

Lin Jiaojiao explained how the Double Ninth Candles let her track the two days she had been imprisoned, and Su Jiu realized the group was approaching a time domain that suggested someone besides Zuo Kexin was behind their troubles. Su Jiu stopped before entering it, leaving the group to face the hidden threat ahead.

• Lin Jiaojiao described how the Double Ninth Candles repeatedly burned and reformed, allowing her to measure the time she spent in the cave.
• Su Jiu questioned how the candles could remain lit, and Lin Jiaojiao explained that they required spirit stones, a Demon Core, spiritual qi, or demonic qi.
• Chu Luohen warned Su Jiu that going farther would take them into an enemy's time domain.
• Su Jiu reasoned that Zuo Kexin could not have escaped four Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators through her own strength and suspected another person was orchestrating the trap.
• Lin Jiaojiao asked why the group had stopped, while Chu Luohen and Yun Huanling watched Su Jiu smile and reflected on the burdens she had carried.

Su Jiu and the others realized the magic beasts would not cross the time domain’s boundary and debated whether an unseen watcher had arranged their predicament. After Chu Luohen explained how to break the domain, Dao Lord Qing Ci denied having awakened one, and Yun Huanling reacted strangely to his name.

• Su Jiu explained that someone might have foreseen their predicament, but Yun Huanling insisted such precise predictions were impossible under the Heavenly Dao’s concealment.
• Yun Huanling’s shout startled shadowy creatures, and Su Jiu’s group fought them; their corpses formed an arc marking the time domain’s boundary.
• Su Jiu reassured Lin Jiaojiao that she would have helped anyone in her place, then dismissed the idea that Zuo Kexin had arranged the trap.
• Su Jiu asked Chu Luohen how to break the time domain, and he said a stronger domain user could override it.
• Dao Lord Qing Ci denied awakening a domain and urged the younger cultivators to rely on themselves, while Yun Huanling asked who he was.
• Su Jiu identified Dao Lord Qing Ci as a senior from Azure Tide Sect’s Cloudmist Peak, and Yun Huanling’s reaction led her to ask if he knew him.

Su Jiu suspected Yun Huanling and Dao Lord Qing Ci shared a secret, then proposed using several cultivators’ domains together to challenge the time domain. As the group entered, Ning Fan explained the plan to Yang Guo and grew suspicious of Dao Lord Qing Ci’s motives and unknown past.

• Yun Huanling claimed his master had told him about Dao Lord Qing Ci, but Su Jiu noticed signs that he might be lying.
• Dao Lord Qing Ci watched Yun Huanling closely, deepening Su Jiu’s suspicion that the two had an unexplained connection.
• Su Jiu proposed combining the domains of several cultivators to overpower the time domain and entered it first, followed by Yun Huanling.
• Ning Fan explained the combined-domain plan to Yang Guo as they followed Su Jiu and the others into the time domain.
• Ning Fan questioned why Dao Lord Qing Ci was only observing and sent a pale golden streak of light to investigate the senior’s background.

Su Jiu and her companions found the cave at the center of the Time Domain and entered it, where they discovered that the passage differed from Lin Jiaojiao’s memory. Zuo Kexin appeared and stopped them, while Lin Jiaojiao demanded to know where she had taken Hu Yucheng and the other disciples.

• Chu Luohen secretly told Su Jiu another way to break the Time Domain, briefly reminding her of the Junior Granduncle she had once known.
• Su Jiu and the others found the cave, and Chu Luohen confirmed it was the center of the Time Domain.
• Su Jiu entered the cave first, followed by Yun Huanling and the others.
• Lin Jiaojiao said the passage had once been filled with oddly shaped, lightweight stones, but Su Jiu’s group found no such obstacles.
• Two dark-red candlesticks appeared, doors formed in the passage walls, and Zuo Kexin arrived to stop the group.
• Lin Jiaojiao demanded that Zuo Kexin reveal where she had taken Hu Yucheng and the other disciples.

Lin Jiaojiao and the others confronted Zuo Kexin, who claimed that one of the two doors held the missing disciples and the other held vengeful ghosts. Lin Jiaojiao chose to keep Zuo Kexin alive for a chance to save her fellow disciples, while reflecting on how Zuo Kexin’s past had turned into resentment and hatred.

• Su Jiu examined the strange doors and saw their face-like patterns subtly move through her otherworldly eyes.
• Zuo Kexin taunted Lin Jiaojiao, who accused her of betraying her fellow disciples and reminded her of her past crimes.
• Enraged, Zuo Kexin struck at Lin Jiaojiao, but Yang Guo blocked the attack with her sword.
• Zuo Kexin warned that killing her would leave the missing disciples unfound, and Yang Guo threatened her with a blade at her neck.
• Lin Jiaojiao asked Yang Guo to spare Zuo Kexin, accepting the risk that her promise might be a lie because her fellow disciples were at stake.
• Lin Jiaojiao reflected on Zuo Kexin’s fall from a respected sect disciple into a resentful killer who blamed others for her suffering.

Su Jiu used the cold poison on her sword to force Zuo Kexin to answer which door concealed the vengeful ghosts. Zuo Kexin recognized the tactic and accused Su Jiu of ambushing her, while Yang Guo prepared to reinforce the threat.

• Yun Huanling saw the faces on the right door come alive, panicked, and clutched Su Jiu's hand until her voice helped him recover.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling discussed the eerie doors, and Su Jiu questioned whether Zuo Kexin's claim about one normal room could be trusted.
• Su Jiu cut Zuo Kexin's neck with her Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword and demanded to know which door held the ghosts.
• Zuo Kexin stayed silent as the sword's cold poison began to affect her, then accused Su Jiu of ambushing her when she realized what had happened.
• Su Jiu defended her methods as an Enforcement Hall member, and Yang Guo corrected Zuo Kexin before threatening to make her experience those methods firsthand.

Su Jiu questioned Zuo Kexin about the two doors and learned that Hu Yucheng and the Mystic Dharma Immortal Sect disciples were trapped behind one of them, though Zuo Kexin did not know which. With Hu Yucheng in danger, Lin Jiaojiao offered to choose a door and enter.

• Su Jiu used the cold poison affecting Zuo Kexin to pressure her for information about the two doors.
• Zuo Kexin revealed that a mysterious wisp of consciousness had empowered her and told her that both doors contained vengeful ghosts.
• Zuo Kexin explained that Hu Yucheng and the Mystic Dharma Immortal Sect disciples had disappeared behind one of the doors, but she did not know which one.
• Yang Guo confirmed that Zuo Kexin was telling the truth, and Su Jiu recognized that the person behind the trap had kept Zuo Kexin ignorant.
• Lin Jiaojiao urged the group to pick a door and offered to choose, even if it meant dying alongside Hu Yucheng.

After Lin Jiaojiao chose the left door, Su Jiu left Zuo Kexin behind, where a mysterious voice persuaded her to drink blood demon dew that killed her. Su Jiu and the others entered a dark void filled with whirlpools, where Lin Jiaojiao was swept away and the remaining group faced suction that kept growing stronger.

• Lin Jiaojiao chose the ghost-faced door on the left, and Su Jiu promised Zuo Kexin she might survive if they escaped within two hours before leaving with the others.
• Zuo Kexin discovered Su Jiu's innate origin qi was corroding her meridians, and a mysterious voice told her to drink blood demon dew to expel it.
• Zuo Kexin drank the blood demon dew and died, while the voice admitted that an ordinary person could not withstand its power.
• Su Jiu led Yun Huanling and the others through the door into a dark void, where whirlpools pulled them in different directions.
• A whirlpool swept Lin Jiaojiao away, and Yang Guo could not reach her because the suction behind her was too strong.
• Su Jiu warned the group that the whirlpools' suction was increasing and more whirlpools were appearing.

Su Jiu ordered the disciples to stop resisting the whirlpools, then entered one with Yun Huanling, only for it to vanish behind them. Ning Fan and Chu Luohen concluded the time domain had different laws for Su Jiu and entered another whirlpool, while Su Jiu regained consciousness in an unknown place.

• As the disciples began suffering injuries and vanishing into whirlpools, Su Jiu told them to stop resisting and let the suction carry them.
• Su Jiu entered a whirlpool with Yun Huanling, and the whirlpool disappeared as soon as they were gone.
• Chu Luohen reasoned that the time domain's laws differed for Su Jiu because the formation might have targeted her from the start.
• Ning Fan and Chu Luohen entered another whirlpool to assess what awaited them, and the remaining whirlpools faded away.
• Su Jiu woke up rubbing her forehead and looked around her unfamiliar surroundings.

Su Jiu woke in a ghost-filled forest after passing through the time domain and found that Yun Huanling had protected her with an eighth-tier Formation Disk. Yun Huanling woke elsewhere in the Ghost Domain and confronted the voice in his mind that accused him of being afraid.

• Su Jiu woke alone in a forest and discovered the Defensive Formation Yun Huanling had placed around her.
• The Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword explained that the laws of the space had suppressed Su Jiu’s companions until she awoke, then took human form to guard her.
• Su Jiu sensed the forest’s many ghosts, and Purple Ultimate destroyed one that pressed against the formation barrier.
• Yun Huanling woke in the Ghost Domain, recognized the place where his consciousness had split decades earlier, and wondered why it had appeared in the Demon-Subduing Land.
• A voice in Yun Huanling’s mind accused him of fearing the Ghost Domain and relying on Su Jiu, but he dismissed its attempt to unsettle him.

Yun Huanling fought off a horde of vengeful ghosts, but they lured him far from Su Jiu and left him lost in the Ghost Domain. After Little Black advised him to wait for Su Jiu to find him, Yun Huanling stayed put, unaware that the Ghost Domain could bring unexpected trouble.

• Yun Huanling protected Su Jiu with a Defensive Formation and fought the approaching vengeful ghosts, suffering minor wounds as he defeated them.
• Yun Huanling realized the ghosts had drawn him into an unfamiliar part of the vast Ghost Domain, far beyond his divine sense’s range.
• Yun Huanling asked the Nine-Bend Compass’s spirit, Little Black, for directions, but Little Black could not navigate the special territory.
• Little Black advised Yun Huanling to stay where he was so Su Jiu could find him, and Yun Huanling decided to wait.

Su Jiu and Purple Ultimate fought through wandering ghosts after leaving the formation, then used Void Talismans to track Yun Huanling. Their pursuit was delayed by increasingly powerful ghosts, and they ended the chapter battling two red-clothed vengeful ghosts.

• Purple Ultimate killed the ghosts surrounding Su Jiu, while Su Jiu realized the battle had erased the traces of Yun Huanling's earlier fight.
• Su Jiu placed Void Talismans on nearby trees and activated them to create a golden line pointing toward Yun Huanling.
• Su Jiu followed the line with Purple Ultimate, but wandering ghosts repeatedly slowed their flight.
• Su Jiu identified two red-clothed ghosts as vengeful ghosts turning baleful, and one attacked Purple Ultimate with a divine sense shriek.
• Purple Ultimate used the innate origin qi Su Jiu had given him to kill one of the red-clothed ghosts, and the other fled.

Su Jiu followed scraps of Yun Huanling’s clothing through the woods and found him gravely wounded and unconscious, hanging from a dead tree. His external injuries were severe, but his internal injuries were surprisingly mild, and Purple Ultimate reacted strangely when he saw him.

• Su Jiu stopped Purple Ultimate from chasing the fleeing enemies and found a scrap of Yun Huanling’s clothing caught on a branch.
• Su Jiu used a trail of clothing scraps to track Yun Huanling, discovering that the later scraps were stained with his blood.
• Su Jiu and Purple Ultimate reasoned that chilling winds had erased signs of a fight while leaving scraps wedged in branches.
• After finding ten scraps, Su Jiu sensed Yun Huanling nearby and hurried ahead, with Purple Ultimate following in sword form.
• Su Jiu cut Yun Huanling down from a dead tree and found him unconscious, bloodied, and covered in external wounds.
• Su Jiu examined Yun Huanling and found his internal injuries mild, while Purple Ultimate showed an unusual reaction upon seeing him.

Su Jiu learned from Little Black that a mysterious black-clad man had nearly killed Yun Huanling, then spared him and cleared the area of vengeful ghosts. Yun Huanling woke beside Su Jiu, while Little Black exposed the details of his escape.

• Su Jiu examined the ghost-filled surroundings and questioned why no vengeful ghosts were nearby.
• Little Black emerged from Yun Huanling's dantian and explained that a black-clad stranger had appeared through a white vortex and attacked Yun Huanling.
• Little Black said the stranger had hung Yun Huanling up, cleared away the vengeful ghosts, and vanished, leaving Su Jiu to wonder what he wanted.
• After four hours, Yun Huanling woke, briefly showing unusual dark eyes before they returned to normal.
• Yun Huanling complained to Su Jiu that his chest hurt, but Little Black revealed that he was fine and recounted how he had fled.

Su Jiu questioned Yun Huanling about the Man in Black and realized the ghost domain was contained within the time domain, possibly by its creator. As Su Jiu and Yun Huanling continued onward, Lin Jiaojiao arrived alone among wandering ghosts, powerless and hidden from them for the moment.

• Yun Huanling told Su Jiu that the Man in Black had held back and used arts of at least three attributes despite his exceptionally pure spiritual qi.
• Su Jiu realized that withdrawing her consciousness had briefly freed her from the time laws, suggesting the ghost domain was a room within the time domain.
• Yun Huanling confirmed that time had flowed normally during his previous stay in a ghost domain, and Su Jiu suspected someone had deliberately bound this one inside the time domain.
• Su Jiu and Yun Huanling continued toward their companions and the Mystic Dharma Immortal Sect disciples Lin Jiaojiao hoped to rescue.
• Lin Jiaojiao fell through a whirlpool and arrived without cultivation in a place filled with wandering ghosts, where she stayed hidden and watched her surroundings.