Chapter Summaries

Yang Guo joined the battle against the demonic cultivators and discovered signs that their attack might be part of a concealed arrangement. After the fighting, Yun Chao and his companions asked her about Su Jiu and Yun Huanling, whose fate in the Demon-Subduing Land remained a concern.

• Yun Chao, Qin Ming, and Tang Wuchen joined the fight, and Yang Guo heard a demonic cultivator wonder why the Medicine Gate had brought in outside help before Yun Chao killed him.
• Yang Guo fought while searching for useful thoughts, then restrained a demonic cultivator who accused her of meddling; he began to reveal that they had agreed to work with someone before a hidden attacker killed him with a spiritual-qi arrow.
• Yang Guo examined the wound, suspected a high-level attacker had silenced the demonic cultivator, and decided to report her suspicions to Ning Hai.
• Yun Chao, Qin Ming, Tang Wuchen, and Lan Fang Ziyi approached Yang Guo after the demonic cultivators were defeated, and Yun Chao asked how Su Jiu was doing.
• Yang Guo learned that Yun Chao was Yun Huanling's cousin and told him and Lan Fang Ziyi that Yun Huanling had grown much stronger, though Lan Fang Ziyi worried the Demon-Subduing Land would still be dangerous for him.

Yang Guo and the others left the Medicine Gate after learning about its isolation, while Su Jiu and Chu Luohen were caught by the Life-and-Death Tree. The tree suppressed their spiritual power, wrapped them in roots and branches, and sent Su Jiu falling into an unknown place, where she landed unharmed.

• Yang Guo reassured Lan Fang Ziyi that Su Jiu had already shown remarkable strength, and Qin Ming asked when she might come out of the Demon-Subduing Land.
• Tang Wuchen reflected on the Medicine Gate's isolation and restrictions as he escorted Yang Guo and the others to the Main Hall to bid farewell to the Medicine Gate Master.
• Yang Guo noticed the Medicine Gate Master's old ailment but left without learning what it was.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen were seized by the Life-and-Death Tree's branches, and the tree suppressed their ability to channel spiritual power.
• The tree's roots emerged from the ground and tightened around Su Jiu and Chu Luohen until they were trapped in darkness.
• Su Jiu felt the ground collapse beneath her and fell, then landed without injury in an unknown place.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen discovered they were inside the Life-and-Death Tree, where spiritual power worked but their divine senses remained sealed. Their discoveries suggested the tree was made of chaos and might still contain the Azure Realm’s supposedly depleted innate origin qi.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen landed safely in darkness and realized they could use spiritual power, though their divine senses and Su Jiu’s otherworldly eyes were sealed.
• Chu Luohen explained that legends linked the Life-and-Death Tree and the Everlasting Flower to the Immortal Realm and claimed the tree held innate origin qi.
• Chu Luohen told Su Jiu that innate origin qi was primordial chaos qi and urged her to test it; when she channeled it into a Frost Flower, the flower vanished.
• Su Jiu inferred that the Life-and-Death Tree’s interior was made of chaos, and Chu Luohen suspected the entire tree had formed from chaos.
• Su Jiu wondered whether the Life-and-Death Tree had concealed the Azure Realm’s innate origin qi all along, leaving it undiminished.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen were attacked by Enforcement Hall disciples in the darkness beneath the Life-and-Death Tree, then reunited with Feng Qi and Eleventh. Feng Qi explained how his group had been dragged underground, and Su Jiu discovered that they had seen a withered Life-and-Death Tree while hers had been lush and covered in Demon Seeds.

• Enforcement Hall disciples ambushed Su Jiu and Chu Luohen, then recognized Su Jiu as the Young Hall Master and led them through the darkness.
• A disciple told Su Jiu that people drawn near the Life-and-Death Tree were dragged underground, where many had died and left skeletal remains.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen reached Feng Qi and Eleventh, and Su Jiu explained that she had sent the rest of her group away with a formation.
• Feng Qi recounted how his group had become trapped near a withered tree before its roots dragged them underground, and explained that his unfinished Message Talisman had been sent back to the Sect.
• Su Jiu told Feng Qi that her group had seen a lush Life-and-Death Tree covered in Demon Seeds, surprising him because he knew nothing about them.

Su Jiu learned that the Life-and-Death Tree’s laws trapped the Enforcement Hall disciples and distorted their sense of time, while Xia Jue had left to find a way out and never returned. As the group discussed the dangers inside the tree, Su Jiu discovered Xia Jue had lost the Demonic Sword and heard how the Enforcement Hall survived attacks from desperate newcomers.

• Chu Luohen explained that the Life-and-Death Tree could disguise itself and that its time laws made it impossible to tell how long they had been trapped.
• Feng Qi told Su Jiu that Xia Jue had gone to find a way out but had not returned, and Chu Luohen reassured her that Yun Huanling and the Buddha Child might escape on their own.
• Su Jiu told Feng Qi and Eleventh that the Demonic Sword’s spirit had become a Sword Demon, and they revealed that Xia Jue had possessed the sword when they last saw him.
• Feng Qi said the Enforcement Hall disciples’ attempts to escape led them back in circles, while other escape methods, including talismans, formations, and teleportation, had failed.
• Feng Qi explained that desperate people attacked newcomers for their resources and lives, and that Xia Jue had saved the Enforcement Hall disciples from being killed in an ambush.
• Feng Qi said the Enforcement Hall had killed the villains who preyed on newcomers.

Su Jiu questioned the captives Feng Qi’s Enforcement Hall had bound and discovered that the Heart-Discernment Sect disciples had been pulled into the Life-and-Death Tree without entering the Demon-Subduing Land. They said a great cauldron had sucked them in, and Su Jiu silenced a disruptive rogue cultivator as she investigated.

• Feng Qi led Su Jiu and Eleventh to the bound cultivators, who protested their imprisonment and denied that there was no way out.
• Su Jiu offered to release the captives if they answered her questions, and she threatened to kill anyone who caused trouble.
• Su Jiu learned that several captives belonged to the Heart-Discernment Sect and asked how they had reached the Demon-Subduing Land’s depths.
• The Heart-Discernment Sect disciples said they had never entered the Demon-Subduing Land and did not know where they were.
• A disciple explained that a great cauldron had sucked them in, and Su Jiu used a Silencing Talisman on the rogue cultivator who interrupted her.

Su Jiu questioned the cultivators trapped inside the Life-and-Death Tree and learned that demonic cultivators had sent them through strange cauldrons linked to altars across the continents. As the group mapped the altars and searched for a pattern, Su Jiu noticed something in their locations, and two disciples from great sects arrived.

• Su Jiu questioned the captives and learned that demonic cultivators had thrown them into blood-marked cauldrons on formations, transporting them into the Life-and-Death Tree.
• Su Jiu discovered that the captives came from several continents, but none were from the Azure Mist Continent, and she suspected no altars had appeared there.
• Su Jiu asked the captives to map the altars, formations, and cauldron totems on jade slips so she could investigate the demonic cultivators' purpose.
• Feng Qi and Eleventh compared the five altar locations and suspected they had been placed according to an unknown pattern.
• Su Jiu studied the locations with a growingly sharp gaze as Enforcement Hall disciples returned from patrol with two disciples from great sects.

Su Jiu and Feng Qi learned that demonic cultivators had trapped Tang Wuchen and a junior disciple inside the same place while attacking the Medicine Gate. Tang Wuchen restored the formation drawn by the other cultivators, revealing that they had been gathered for a blood-refining array.

• Su Jiu reunited with Tang Wuchen, who explained that demonic cultivators had pushed him and a junior disciple into the cauldron on the Medicine Gate's Back Mountain.
• Tang Wuchen told Feng Qi and Eleventh that the Medicine Gate had relocated near the Azure Tide Sect after repeated attacks by demonic cultivators.
• Su Jiu marked the Medicine Gate's location on a jade slip and considered where the remaining altar might be, while the cultivators struggled to recall the formation they had seen.
• Tang Wuchen redrew the formation on the jade slip, and Feng Qi identified it as the Qian Ling Blood Array.
• Eleventh explained that the Qian Ling Blood Array refined the qi and blood of a thousand people into pills, alarming the trapped cultivators.

Su Jiu and Feng Qi examined a jade slip describing a forbidden formation and identified it as the Thousand-Absolute Demon-Summoning Formation. They suspected its creator might be plotting another descent of the Demon Realm, but Feng Qi knew neither how to activate nor destroy it, leaving Su Jiu to investigate on her own.

• Feng Qi explained that the pill described on the jade slip could raise demonic cultivators' cultivation while suppressing their demonic nature, and Eleventh condemned the forbidden Qian Ling Blood Array.
• Su Jiu recalled encountering similar altars in Twinleaf Town and explained that they differed from a true Qian Ling Blood Array, which needed no cauldron sacrifice.
• Su Jiu identified the formation as the Thousand-Absolute Demon-Summoning Formation, surprising Eleventh and troubling Feng Qi because he believed only a few people knew of it.
• Feng Qi revealed that the Hall Master had linked the formation to the Demon Realm's descent ten thousand years earlier, and Su Jiu wondered whether its creator planned to bring the Demon Realm back.
• Su Jiu asked Feng Qi how to activate or destroy the formation, but he knew neither, so she returned to studying the jade slip while Feng Qi silently resented Eleventh's teasing glance.

Su Jiu deduced that the seven altars and the Demon-Subduing Land might form a huge formation centered on the Life-and-Death Tree. She concluded that the cultivators’ vanished blood had been sent to the altars, possibly to absorb the tree’s hidden innate origin qi, leaving Feng Qi to grasp the implication.

• Su Jiu observed that every altar was equally distant from the Demon-Subduing Land and proposed that the seven altars and that land formed a Grand Formation.
• Su Jiu suspected the formation eye lay inside the Life-and-Death Tree, then asked Feng Qi to show her the last people he had killed.
• Su Jiu noticed the bodies had become skeletons despite the dense spiritual qi and that no trace of blood lingered in the air.
• Feng Qi recalled that the bloody scent from his victims’ wounds had disappeared quickly and asked where their flesh and blood had gone.
• Su Jiu said the blood had been transmitted to the altars and explained that dead cultivators’ remains might absorb the innate origin qi hidden in the tree’s chaos.
• Feng Qi realized that something might have channeled the Life-and-Death Tree’s innate origin qi into the dead bodies.

Su Jiu tested whether her Innate Origin Qi could reveal the formation eye inside the Life-and-Death Tree, triggering a violent clash between spiritual and demonic qi. A spatial whirlpool appeared, swallowed the hidden demon seeds, and vanished, while Chu Luohen explained that the chaos had concealed them from each other.

• Su Jiu wondered who could channel Innate Origin Qi into the dead cultivators and considered whether the Gray-Clothed Man might be responsible.
• Su Jiu cut her palm and released a bead of blood, causing spiritual qi and demonic qi to gather into opposing fields.
• Su Jiu protected the others with an Innate Origin Qi barrier as the clashing qi repeatedly struck it.
• Su Jiu suspected that Little Gift was guiding her instincts as black seeds appeared and Innate Origin Qi formed a whirlpool with spatial power.
• The whirlpool swallowed every demon seed and disappeared, and Chu Luohen explained that chaos inside the Life-and-Death Tree had concealed the qi and seeds from each other.

The Life-and-Death Tree began collapsing after Innate Origin Qi devoured the demon seeds, revealing coffins full of sleeping people implanted with demon seeds. Su Jiu and the Enforcement Hall could not save them, and the demonic qi transported them away, leaving their destination unknown.

• Chu Luohen warned that the Life-and-Death Tree was about to collapse as tremors shook its interior.
• The ground cracked open and revealed rows of coffins; Su Jiu recognized the people inside as living sleepers with demon seeds planted in them.
• Su Jiu explained that the coffin seals suppressed both the sleepers and their demon seeds, and said there was no way to save them.
• When the demonic qi surged toward the coffins, Su Jiu and Feng Qi tried to protect them, but their barriers and treasures failed.
• The demonic qi swept away the coffin lids, wrapped around the sleepers, and transported them away, leaving empty coffins behind.

Su Jiu absorbed the Life-and-Death Tree’s innate origin qi, advancing Jade Moisture, Ice Clarity and weakening the tree until it disappeared. Its collapse revealed a burning formation containing spiritual qi, demonic qi, and the mingled blood of the corrupted Phoenix and Jiao Yue.

• The Enforcement Hall disciples feared that people carrying high-rank demon seeds might have scattered across the Nine Provinces Continent, while the rogue cultivators failed to understand the danger.
• Su Jiu was overwhelmed by innate origin qi and meditated, causing Jade Moisture, Ice Clarity to advance to its sixth level as frost blossoms appeared around her.
• Feng Qi noticed frost blossoms around Chu Luohen as well, but Chu Luohen denied seeing them and said Su Jiu’s cultivation was affecting the tremors.
• Chu Luohen sensed that Su Jiu was drawing innate origin qi from the Life-and-Death Tree, disrupting its balance and causing it to collapse.
• After Su Jiu finished regulating her breathing, the Life-and-Death Tree vanished and exposed a massive sinkhole containing a red formation and the mingled blood of the corrupted Phoenix and Jiao Yue.

Su Jiu discovered that the stranded cultivators had no Teleportation Arrays, so she inscribed one to let them escape the Demon-Subduing Land. The chapter left the rogue cultivators deciding whether to trust her newly made array.

• The rogue cultivators realized they had reached the Demon-Subduing Land and lamented that they might die there.
• A rogue cultivator tried to persuade Su Jiu to save him, but her flying sword cut off his fingers when he reached for her sleeve.
• Su Jiu learned that no one had a Teleportation Array, since hers and the others' had been used up or lost.
• Su Jiu used her Ice Cloud Hairpin to inscribe a Teleportation Array on a Formation Disk while the rogue cultivators watched in disbelief.
• Su Jiu activated the finished array and invited anyone who wanted to leave to go, prompting the rogue cultivators to debate whether it was safe to trust.

Su Jiu and her companions sealed the blood-filled Grand Formation that appeared after the Life-and-Death Tree vanished, suspecting it was a trap laid by the Gray-Clothed Man. After they left to find Senior Brother, the Gray-Clothed Man approached the stranded Formation Arts Artist and offered to help him comprehend Spatial Laws.

• Su Jiu suspected the Grand Formation had been activated by the destruction of the Life-and-Death Tree and might be part of the Gray-Clothed Man’s plan.
• Chu Luohen suggested sealing the formation, so Su Jiu, Feng Qi, and the others joined their spiritual power to create a barrier over it.
• Su Jiu explained that the blood-filled formation seemed like a sacrificial rite fused from multiple layers, but she could not unravel it in the time available.
• Su Jiu and her companions left to find Senior Brother, while the Formation Arts Artist finished inscribing his formation and discovered he was alone.
• The Gray-Clothed Man appeared and offered to help the Formation Arts Artist comprehend Spatial Laws so he could make a Teleportation Array.

As the Azure Realm remained under attack beneath an increasingly red sun, long-absent Dao Lords returned to their sects. Dao Lord Dongcheng took charge of the Heavenly Dawn Sect’s surviving disciples, leaving Li Yue resentful that she had lost her chance to lead.

• Dao Lord Yuxiu and Dao Lord Cao Yin met two elders who had returned to the Azure Tide Sect after eight hundred years, and Ning Hai arranged residences for them on Main Peak.
• The tall elder asked about Zhuang Jing, but Cao Yin stopped the conversation before Yuxiu could respond.
• Dao Lord Dongcheng returned to the Heavenly Dawn Sect and found its grounds reduced to fire-scorched ruins.
• Dao Lord Dongcheng encountered the surviving disciples led by Li Yue, proved his identity with his old-generation robes, and declared he would lead the sect’s rebuilding.
• Li Yue bowed to Dao Lord Dongcheng despite resenting his claim to leadership, knowing she could not safely resist him.

Su Jiu's group found another active formation and discovered that the Sword Demon, Yun Huanling, and the Buddha Child had vanished from the cave. Meanwhile, Ning Fan found an intact altar and returned to a damaged one, which had also been restored and activated.

• Su Jiu rejected sealing the formation, suspecting it was linked to others, and the group continued searching for Xia Jue.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen told Feng Qi and the others that a demonic sword had become a Sword Demon and escaped from Xia Jue.
• The group found the Sword Demon's cave empty, with no sign that Yun Huanling had used his Thousand-Mile Travel Talisman.
• Ning Fan's party found an intact altar with a black sword, a blood formation, and sixteen flags depicting unfamiliar monsters.
• After a disciple recognized the flags from ruined altars, Ning Fan led the group back to one, where they found it restored and active.

Ning Fan and Su Jiu discovered that linked formations across the Demon-Subduing Land had mysteriously repaired themselves, each containing a phantom Demonic Sword, while an earthquake drew both groups toward its source. Su Jiu’s group encountered demonic living dead on the way, and she used the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl to drive them away from herself, leaving Feng Qi to face the attackers.

• Ning Fan concluded that the linked formations had repaired themselves passively and learned that the real Demonic Sword would be in the main formation.
• An earthquake shook the Jungle, and Ning Fan set out with his people to investigate after noticing a nearby formation flicker.
• Su Jiu’s group found more formations containing phantom Demonic Swords and followed Feng Qi toward the earthquake’s source.
• Dozens or hundreds of demonic living dead emerged in front of Su Jiu’s group, and the two sides immediately fought.
• Su Jiu brought out the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl, causing the living dead to avoid her and rush toward Feng Qi instead.

Su Jiu destroyed the rotting corpses with the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl and joined forces with Ning Fan to investigate the tremor and the weakening seal. They reached a huge altar, where Su Jiu found an old acquaintance conducting a strange ritual around the Demonic Sword.

• Su Jiu's golden radiance burned the rotting corpses and their demon seeds to ash, impressing Chu Luohen and the Enforcement Hall disciples.
• Su Jiu's group encountered Ning Fan and the Shadow Pavilion disciples, who had also fought rotting corpses.
• Su Jiu and Ning Fan suspected the seal was weakening because damaged formations were involved, rather than because the spirit vein had been disturbed.
• Su Jiu and Ning Fan flew toward the tremor's source and cleared two more groups of rotting corpses along the way.
• At a massive altar, Su Jiu recognized an old acquaintance, now shrouded in demonic qi, performing a ritual that produced pools of writhing black liquid around the Demonic Sword.

Su Jiu confronted A-Yu at the altar and learned that A-Yu was helping her mysterious master in a sacrifice so he would restore Yin Yin. As Su Jiu attacked, a demonic sword blocked her, and she recognized it as the sword she had given her Senior Brother.

• Su Jiu spoke with A-Yu, who insisted that completing the sacrifice would let her master bring Yin Yin back to life.
• A-Yu described her master as a god in a gray cloak, and Chu Luohen confirmed that they had already fought him.
• Su Jiu demanded to know where the master was, but A-Yu unleashed a black tempest and attacked.
• Su Jiu broke through the tempest and charged A-Yu while the others prepared to deal with it.
• A-Yu’s words caused pools of water to swell with demonic qi, and a demonic sword intercepted Su Jiu’s attempt to silence her.
• Su Jiu recognized the sword from the Taiji Secret Realm and wondered how her Senior Brother had lost it.