Chapter Summaries

Feng Qi returned from the Demon-Subduing Land to find the Azure Realm in chaos and learned that a traitor had emerged within the Azure Tide Sect's senior ranks. Ning Hai explained that the seals on the Three Great Secret Realms were failing and greater dangers were gathering, leaving Feng Qi worried about the sect's future without Xia Jue.

• Hong Ling and the man she had picked up suspected that coordinated traitors were connected to the red mark in the sky rather than being controlled by a demonic cultivator sect.
• Minor sects formed alliances, while mysterious blood-filled formations became unreachable behind barriers.
• Feng Qi returned to the Azure Tide Sect after seeing fighting and disorder across the Azure Realm.
• Feng Qi found Ning Hai alone in the Heavenly Origin Hall and learned that the sect had canceled large meetings because it suspected a traitor among its inner ranks.
• Ning Hai told Feng Qi that the Three Great Secret Realms' seals were failing, demonic cultivators were growing bolder, and Dao cultivators were defecting.

Yun Huanling recalled how he had been captured and realized Su Jiu had learned the truth about his identity and origins. Unable to intervene as he listened to her conversation with Dao Lord Qing Ci, he watched her move toward danger and could only hope she would escape.

• Yun Huanling dreamed of A Jiu walking into darkness, then remembered that a stranger had subdued the Sword Demon and reclaimed his true body before he lost consciousness.
• Yun Huanling recalled that he was the Heaven-Connecting Tower and had concealed his identity to protect Su Jiu from being accused of harboring it.
• Yun Huanling realized Su Jiu had learned about his identity from Dao Lord Qing Ci, while he had also overheard their conversation as he began to wake.
• Yun Huanling suspected Dao Lord Qing Ci and his two accomplices knew Su Jiu's origins, and wondered whether one of them came from the same place as her.
• Yun Huanling watched Su Jiu move deeper into danger and desperately wished he could tell her to leave him and escape.

Su Jiu confronted Dao Lord Qing Ci about his cynicism toward friendship, while he threatened to test the bonds she trusted and awakened Yun Huanling to question him about the Heaven-Connecting Tower. Their exchange revealed that Dao Lord Qing Ci’s resurrection and extraordinary longevity remained mysterious, leaving Su Jiu and Yun Huanling unsure what lay behind them.

• Su Jiu rejected Dao Lord Qing Ci’s claim that friendships and other bonds were worthless, and he proposed a wager that would challenge the bonds she trusted.
• Dao Lord Qing Ci freed Yun Huanling’s consciousness and opened his eyes, but Su Jiu burned her fingertips when she tried to reach through the golden ring imprisoning him.
• Yun Huanling revealed that he was the Heaven-Connecting Tower and taunted Dao Lord Qing Ci, who needed the tower and dared not destroy him.
• Dao Lord Qing Ci asked why the Heaven-Connecting Tower had developed a spirit and been reincarnated, while Yun Huanling demanded an explanation for Qing Ci’s resurrection and long life.
• Su Jiu noticed Dao Lord Qing Ci react unnaturally to Yun Huanling’s question, but she and Yun Huanling could not determine what was behind his resurrection.

Su Jiu and Little Pearl realized Dao Lord Qing Ci may have returned to life through the Nine-Turn Reincarnation Cycle Technique, which required another person to die in his place. Qing Ci revealed that the person whose life he exchanged with was Yun Chong, an ancient Yun Household genius who had foreseen a calamity in the Azure Realm.

• Su Jiu found that her injured finger kept worsening despite spiritual qi, though innate origin qi stopped the pain from spreading.
• Little Pearl explained that the Nine-Turn Reincarnation Cycle Technique could revive the dead by exchanging fate patterns and sacrificing a living person, and suggested the false Heavenly Dao might have allowed Qing Ci's resurrection.
• Dao Lord Qing Ci confirmed that Su Jiu's Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearls had told her about the technique, while Yun Huanling objected that the Heavenly Dao would never permit it.
• Su Jiu deduced that Qing Ci's exchanged life must have belonged to a powerful cultivator born at the same time as him and asked who it was.
• Dao Lord Qing Ci named Yun Chong, the Yun Household's foremost genius ten thousand years earlier, who reached the Tribulation Transcendence Stage in three thousand years and foresaw a calamity in the Azure Realm.

The Gray-Clothed Man revealed that Yun Chong sacrificed himself to destroy the Heaven-Connecting Tower and send its spirit into reincarnation, and admitted his own long-running scheme was tied to the calamity. He left Su Jiu and Yun Huanling facing his claim that they were too weak to change what was coming.

• Dao Lord Qing Ci suggested that Yun Huanling’s birth and the Heaven-Connecting Tower’s disappearance were connected to Yun Chong.
• Su Jiu accused Dao Lord Qing Ci’s rescuer of being the Gray-Clothed Man, who suddenly appeared before the group without being sensed.
• The Gray-Clothed Man revealed that he was a demon and female, and hinted that an unknown person had secretly helped Su Jiu as part of a deal.
• The Gray-Clothed Man explained that Yun Chong used his cultivation and talent to awaken the Heaven-Connecting Tower’s spirit, then destroyed it and sent the spirit into reincarnation.
• The Gray-Clothed Man recalled Yun Chong’s defiance and said Yun Chong had left star maps that foretold the calamity, though he insisted Su Jiu and the others could not change anything.

Su Jiu encountered Xia Jue, whose face was familiar but whose demonic appearance and cold manner made her doubt that he was still her Senior Brother. Meanwhile, Hongguang and the Heavenly Secret Sect concluded that the spreading red scar was a rapidly opening passage, but other sects largely refused to believe their warning.

• The Gray-Clothed Man asked Su Jiu to guess who he was, and his resemblance to her Senior Brother unsettled her.
• Xia Jue arrived and told the Gray-Clothed Man that he had said enough; Su Jiu recognized his face but saw only demonic qi and a cold expression.
• The red scar across the sky grew branches and cracks, changing far faster than the Heavenly Rift had ten thousand years earlier.
• Hongguang explained that the Azure Realm’s existing pollution could make another passage open more easily, and asked whether the other sects had been informed.
• The Fifth Elder described how lower-ranked sects had mocked the Heavenly Secret Sect after it lost its divination abilities.
• The Grand Elder reported that Ning Hai and the Azure Tide Sect agreed with their analysis, but few sects believed the warning even with the Azure Tide Sect’s support.

The Heavenly Secret Sect debated the Azure Tide Sect and received a warning to beware of the Medicine Gate, while Dao Lord Li Xiang openly attacked the Azure Tide Sect and injured the Fifth Elder. At the Azure Tide Sect, disagreement over the red scar in the sky intensified as Dao Lord Long Kuo challenged Ning Hai and Hong Ling, and Dao Lord Bei Kui restrained him.

• The Grand Elder told Hongguang that Ning Hai's coded message warned them to beware of the Medicine Gate.
• Dao Lord Li Xiang accused the Azure Tide Sect of sowing discord, then pressured the Fifth Elder until he lost consciousness with a fifth of his meridians severed.
• Hongguang ordered the Fifth Elder taken for treatment, restricted future messages from Dao Lord Li Xiang, and decided to inform the Azure Tide Sect.
• Dao Lord Long Kuo questioned whether the red scar in the sky foretold a heavenly rift and accused Ning Hai of letting personal feelings shape his judgment.
• Hong Ling defended the sect's trust in its allies, while Long Kuo insulted her and demanded that people be removed from the Heavenly Origin Hall.
• Dao Lord Bei Kui forced Long Kuo back into his seat as he prepared to rise in anger.

At a sect meeting, Chu Qianqiu challenged the returning Dao Lords and heard Feng Qi's account of Su Jiu's predicament in the Demon-Subduing Land, then warned Ning Hai that the heavens were about to change. In the Demon-Subduing Land, Xia Jue arrived and ignored Su Jiu, revealing to Dao Lord Qing Ci that he considered their former bond meaningless because she was human and he was a half-demon.

• Dao Lord Long Kuo demanded that the Azure Tide Sect recall its disciples, but a newly arrived Chu Qianqiu mocked him and Dao Lord Bei Kui.
• Chu Qianqiu asked about Su Jiu and Chu Luohen, and Feng Qi explained that Su Jiu had been swept away by a strange formation while searching for Xia Jue.
• Chu Qianqiu warned Ning Hai that the heavens were about to change, then vanished as the hall discussed the formations Feng Qi had described.
• Su Jiu recognized Xia Jue's Sound-Mixing Bell and demanded an explanation, but Xia Jue walked past her without acknowledging her.
• Xia Jue told Dao Lord Qing Ci that he had come to see them one last time and dismissed any affection between himself and Su Jiu because she was human and he was a half-demon.

Su Jiu confronted Xia Jue after learning he was a demon who had betrayed the Azure Tide Sect, while Yun Huanling promised to help her escape. Xia Jue denied that his choices had any hidden justification and told Su Jiu that her treasured bonds meant nothing to him.

• Yun Huanling privately told Su Jiu to cooperate so he could help her escape, but said he still had something important to do.
• Xia Jue revealed that the Gray-Clothed Man had given birth to his body, and Dao Lord Qing Ci told Su Jiu that her senior brother had secrets deeper than the others.
• Xia Jue enclosed himself and Su Jiu in a barrier, drew the demonic qi back into himself, and explained that he had not known he was a demon when they first met.
• Su Jiu demanded to know why Xia Jue chose to betray the Azure Tide Sect and whether he had made a deal to help break the Demon-Subduing Land's barrier.
• Xia Jue claimed he had betrayed the sect for his own benefit, said demons had no hearts, and told Su Jiu that her family bonds and friendships were worthless to him.

Su Jiu confronted Xia Jue after he revealed that he was a demon who had engineered tragedies in both her lives. He explained that he was a half-demon, leaving his origins and the truth of his past hanging over their confrontation.

• Yun Huanling challenged Dao Lord Qing Ci over Xia Jue’s treatment of Su Jiu, and Qing Ci asked whether he would stand with her if she were a demon.
• Su Jiu raised her sword and asked Xia Jue to spar, but he instead revealed that he knew about her rebirth through the False Heavenly Dao’s memories.
• Xia Jue admitted that he had caused Su Jiu’s death in her past life, the Azure Tide Sect’s decline, and the attacks on Cloudmist Peak and other sects.
• Xia Jue explained that the Gray-Clothed Man could not kill Su Jiu directly, so he had tried to destroy her through others and sealed her Heart Discernment in her past life.
• Su Jiu asked what Xia Jue was, and he revealed that he was a half-demon born to a human father and a demon mother who existed outside the rules.

Su Jiu confronted Xia Jue in his hidden base in the Demon-Subduing Land and accused him of planning to repeat the Azure Realm’s ancient calamity. As a storm gathered, they prepared to fight, and Xia Jue revealed that the Azure Jade Flute’s spirit was asleep.

• Su Jiu recalled Xia Jue’s cruel childhood and realized that his past did not excuse what he had become.
• Su Jiu recognized the hidden courtyard as the demons’ base and confronted Xia Jue about targeting the entire Azure Realm.
• Xia Jue admitted he had no intention of letting Su Jiu leave alive, then shattered the barrier between them as rain began to fall.
• Yun Huanling urged Su Jiu to work with him and escape, while Dao Lord Qing Ci and the Gray-Clothed Man chose not to intervene.
• Su Jiu fused with the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword as Xia Jue summoned the Azure Jade Flute in its demonic form.
• Su Jiu asked whether the flute’s artifact spirit was still present, and Xia Jue answered that he was asleep.

Su Jiu fought Xia Jue, who used his domain to show her a false reunion and shatter her composure. She unleashed a desperate strike, but Xia Jue pierced her chest with his flute, leaving her dying in another person's arms.

• Su Jiu formally challenged Xia Jue while Dao Lord Qing Ci and the Gray-Clothed Man watched the duel and Yun Huanling worried about her.
• Su Jiu spread her Snowfall Domain, but Xia Jue overlaid it with an illusion of their past and their Sound-Mixing Bells.
• Su Jiu accused Xia Jue of toying with her and shattered her bell, cutting her palm as she poured nearly all her innate origin qi into the Frostbound Purple Ultimate Sword.
• Xia Jue pierced Su Jiu's chest with his black flute, and she collapsed as Yun Huanling roared and someone caught her.

Su Jiu recovered memories from Nine-Petal Frostflow, learned she had once been a flower, and absorbed a mysterious orb of power while remaining unconscious. She woke in a cave filled with injured Azure Tide Sect disciples, stronger than before, as more people arrived.

• Su Jiu merged with Nine-Petal Frostflow and regained memories revealing her origin and mission.
• Su Jiu found and absorbed a powerful light orb in her dantian, though she did not learn who had placed it there.
• Su Jiu heard Mian Mian and Qingqing caring for her while she remained unable to wake until Nine-Petal Frostflow fully merged with her.
• Su Jiu woke in a cave crowded with injured Azure Tide Sect disciples and recognized Qi Song and Li Ran among the healers.
• Qi Song examined Su Jiu and found her cultivation had advanced beyond the Void Refinement Stage, then several people entered the cave.

After waking from a two-year sleep, Su Jiu reunited with Su Mianmian, Su Qingqing, and the other disciples, then learned that the world’s spiritual qi had surged and the seals of the Three Great Secret Realms were failing. As the group left her to rest and study the Recording Stones, Su Jiu spotted Yan among them and reacted with disbelief.

• Su Mianmian and Su Qingqing welcomed Su Jiu after she awoke, and the group used Purification Talismans to cleanse themselves.
• Su Jiu learned she had slept for two years and that the disciples’ cultivation had risen dramatically as the world’s spiritual qi increased and tribulations ceased to block advancement.
• The Fifth Elder and the Eighth Elder told Su Jiu that the Sect Master was recovering, the Peak Masters were fighting outside, and the Dao Lords had gone to the Three Great Secret Realms to mend their seals.
• The wind spirit offered to answer Su Jiu’s questions about the Demon-Subduing Land, while the elders left her Recording Stones containing information about the situation.
• Su Qingqing led Su Mianmian and the others away so Su Jiu could rest, and Su Jiu noticed Yan, a demonic cultivator, at the back of the group.

Su Jiu learned from the Wind Spirit how Xia Jue had deceived and sealed it, and how he had helped Dao Lord Qing Ci and the Gray-Clothed Man pursue their plan to break the Demon-Subduing Land’s seal. The Wind Spirit also revealed that Xia Jue had escorted Feng Qi’s party out unharmed, leaving its motive uncertain.

• The Wind Spirit told Su Jiu that Xia Jue had seized and sealed it shortly after it left her, despite its earlier suspicions that he could see spirits.
• The Wind Spirit recounted overhearing Dao Lord Qing Ci and the Gray-Clothed Man plan to break the seal, bring the Demon Realm into the Azure Realm, and turn its cultivators into food for demonic beasts.
• The Wind Spirit explained that the Vermilion Bird Sacred Hall had been a diversion meant to trap Su Jiu, while Xia Jue worked separately to complete the Seal-Breaking Formation and drive the three Demonic Swords into it.
• The Wind Spirit watched Xia Jue disguise himself as a jade-like young gentleman and escort Feng Qi’s party out of the Demon-Subduing Land.
• The Wind Spirit wondered why Feng Qi’s party had not questioned the suspiciously easy journey and why Xia Jue had let them leave alive.

Su Jiu watched the Wind Spirit’s recording of Chu Luohen fighting Xia Jue and carrying her away after she was gravely injured. Learning that Chu Luohen had spent two years in seclusion with demonic qi still inside him, she realized their shared origin might explain his condition and decided to visit him.

• After Xia Jue stabbed Su Jiu, Chu Luohen broke through the courtyard barrier and fought Xia Jue, but stopped when Xia Jue warned that Su Jiu was near death.
• Chu Luohen carried Su Jiu away, but the Gray-Clothed Man struck him with demonic qi; Xia Jue rebuked the Gray-Clothed Man for jeopardizing their plans.
• Chu Luohen took Su Jiu through a Teleportation Array as she stopped breathing, and the Wind Spirit’s recording ended.
• Su Jiu learned that Chu Luohen had spent two years in seclusion and suspected the demonic qi had kept him from recovering.
• Su Jiu recalled that she and Chu Luohen shared an origin and that his Innate Origin Qi came from her, then asked the Wind Spirit to take her to him.

Su Jiu learned that the elders’ sealed cultivation grounds could only be reached through the Fifth Elder or the Eighth Elder, then watched a Recording Stone revealing the spirits’ worries about her recovery and Chu Luohen’s worsening condition. Chu Luohen continued fighting the demonic qi in his meridians as an unsettling voice questioned whether his sacrifice for Su Jiu was worth it.

• The Wind Spirit told Su Jiu that she needed the Fifth Elder or the Eighth Elder to reach the elders cultivating in seclusion, and advised her to watch the Recording Stones first.
• Su Jiu activated a Recording Stone, which showed a group of spirits discussing her recovery and Chu Luohen’s struggle to survive the demonic qi.
• The spirits said Chu Luohen had nearly dispersed himself saving Su Jiu and feared he would not hold on much longer.
• Chu Luohen woke and asked the spirits to lower their voices before resuming his effort to repair his deteriorating meridians.
• A mysterious voice from Chu Luohen’s heart questioned whether sacrificing so much for Su Jiu was worth it and asked what he feared.

Chu Luohen agreed to keep Su Jiu from going north in exchange for the Gray-Clothed Man restraining the demonic qi in his body, though he never intended to honor a deal. Su Jiu watched a Recording Stone reveal the Demon-Subduing Land’s collapse and the three Demonic Swords fusing into one.

• The Gray-Clothed Man tempted Chu Luohen with a bargain and warned that demonic qi would cripple him, then asked him to keep Su Jiu from going north to find Yun Huanling.
• Chu Luohen agreed to the request after learning Yun Huanling was north, and the Gray-Clothed Man temporarily restrained the demonic qi.
• Chu Luohen privately decided he had never agreed to any deal with the Gray-Clothed Man.
• Su Jiu activated a Recording Stone and saw Xia Jue and his companions trigger the Seal-Breaking Formation, causing the Demon-Subduing Land’s seal to collapse and demonic qi to devastate the surrounding area.
• Su Jiu watched the three Demonic Swords converge and begin fusing into a single sword.

Su Jiu learned how the Demonic Sword summoned the Demon Realm and heard how its arrival devastated the Azure Realm. Ning Fan explained that two supposed Dao Lords had been demon seeds in disguise and had fled the Azure Tide Sect after being exposed.

• The reunited Demonic Sword activated the Thousand-Absolute Demon-Summoning Formation, tore open the sky, and let demonic beasts pour into the Azure Realm.
• The wind spirit told Su Jiu that demonic sect leaders had collaborated with high-rank demon seeds and that defectors and Zen Sound Temple's survivors suffered disasters after the invasion.
• The wind spirit described how the Buddha Child returned to Zen Sound Temple, then disappeared with its remaining monks after traitors inside the temple turned against them.
• The wind spirit told Su Jiu that Dao Lords Long Kuo and Bei Kui had returned to the Azure Tide Sect and caused trouble before betraying it.
• Ning Fan explained that demon seeds had replaced the two Dao Lords, and that he and Feng Qi recognized their red eyes after the Demon Realm descended.
• Ning Fan said the Shadow Pavilion and Enforcement Hall tried to stop Long Kuo and Bei Kui, but the pair escaped after one was grievously wounded.

Su Jiu and Ning Fan discussed suspicious high-ranking cultivators who may have come from coffins beneath the Life-and-Death Tree, while rumors and deserters stirred trouble for the Azure Tide Sect. Su Jiu then watched a Recording Stone showing an angry crowd confronting Ning Hai at the sect gates.

• Su Jiu suggested that the newly appeared cultivators might have been asleep in coffins beneath the Life-and-Death Tree, and Little Pearl proposed that demon seeds could control their minds without killing them.
• Ning Fan said the Heavenly Secret Sect and Jade Sword Sect had privately contacted the Azure Tide Sect, while allied sects had been warned and other sects were quietly monitoring suspicious people.
• Ning Fan explained that rumors accused the Azure Tide Sect of ostracizing its returning seniors, and that the Grand Elder had joined Long Kuo and Bei Kui after abandoning his post.
• Ning Fan told Su Jiu that the Grand Elder's eldest disciple, A Qi, had been the Ghost Market's young master and had fled the sect after the Grand Elder left.
• Ning Fan pointed Su Jiu to the Recording Stone for an explanation of why Azure Tide Sect disciples had been in the Cave, and she played its image.
• The Recording Stone showed a crowd at the Azure Tide Sect gates, where a Heavenly Dawn Sect disciple denounced Ning Hai and provoked the sect's disciples.