Chapter Summaries

Su Jiu revealed the power of her ninth-tier formation and stopped Dao Lord Bei Kui from escaping. Bei Kui offered information about Xia Jue and the imprisoned Ning Hai and Feng Qi, but Su Jiu began torturing him with her Hidden Mist Returning Needles art.

• Long Kuo recognized Su Jiu's formation as ninth-tier and realized he and Bei Kui could not defeat her.
• Bei Kui tried to escape with a Thousand-Li Teleportation Talisman, but Su Jiu burned it before he could leave.
• Bei Kui offered to reveal what he knew about Xia Jue, Li, Ning Hai, and Feng Qi in exchange for his life.
• Bei Kui told Su Jiu that Xia Jue had imprisoned Ning Hai and Feng Qi beyond the woods in the Forbidden Zone.
• When Bei Kui demanded a heart-demon oath before continuing, Su Jiu used Hidden Mist Returning Needles to inflict agonizing pain on him.

Su Jiu used Mist-Hiding Returning Needle to defeat Dao Lord Long Kuo and torture Dao Lord Bei Kui, then forced them to reveal the Forbidden Zone’s purpose. She realized Li and Xia Jue planned to turn it into a second Demon-Subduing Land, and noticed the demon seeds in both prisoners beginning to spread again.

• Su Jiu used invisible ice-mist needles to overwhelm Long Kuo and Bei Kui, torturing Bei Kui until Long Kuo agreed to answer her questions.
• Su Jiu dispersed the ice mist, and Long Kuo and Bei Kui begged her to spare them rather than undergo complete demonization.
• Long Kuo explained that Li’s forces gathered valuable cultivators’ bones in the Forbidden Zone and used powerful demonic beasts there to kill intruders.
• Long Kuo revealed that Li and Xia Jue planned to make the Forbidden Zone a second Demon-Subduing Land and test how cultivators would suppress it without nearby spirit veins.
• Su Jiu concluded that Li had arranged the Azure Tide Sect’s destruction to clear the way for the plan, and wondered how deeply Xia Jue had been involved.
• As Long Kuo offered to share more information, Su Jiu noticed that his and Bei Kui’s demon seeds had begun spreading again.

Su Jiu learned that Feng Qi and Ning Hai were not among the dead, then watched Dao Lord Long Kuo and Dao Lord Bei Kui die as their demon seeds withered. She and Chu Luohen entered the Forbidden Zone, where Su Jiu saw the chaotic network of spaces Xia Jue had created.

• Su Jiu asked Dao Lord Long Kuo whether Feng Qi and Ning Hai had been found, and he said neither was among the bodies.
• The demon seeds inside Long Kuo and Bei Kui withered and drained their hosts, leaving both men dead and mummified.
• Su Jiu asked Chu Luohen what had caused the demon seeds to wither, and he suspected Li was involved.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen entered the Forbidden Zone, triggering a tremor that changed the surrounding jungle.
• Su Jiu used her Otherworldly Eyes to see the many strange doors and chaotic interwoven spaces within the Forbidden Zone.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen found themselves trapped in the Forbidden Zone, where distorted space shifted doors and plants around them. After they killed a demonic beast that resembled an Azure Realm fierce beast, Su Jiu realized it needed to be collected, and more mysterious creatures emerged from the doors.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen discovered that the Forbidden Zone’s doors leaked mixed laws and that the space itself was shifting, sealing off their entrance.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen prepared to investigate a nearby door, but a demonic beast charged out of another door and attacked them.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen struck the creature with swords infused with innate origin qi, killing it as its demonic qi withdrew into the door it had come from.
• Su Jiu examined the beast with her otherworldly eyes and told Chu Luohen that it needed to be collected, noting it contained no demon seed or remaining demonic qi.
• Several more lumps of demonic qi leaped out of the surrounding doors, leaving Su Jiu unsure whether they were demonic beasts.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen survived successive attacks in the Forbidden Zone as spatial distortions moved them between changing groups of doors. They suspected someone outside was deliberately breaking the barriers between the zone’s interwoven spaces, but Chu Luohen warned that they could not work with someone whose intentions and understanding of the Forbidden Zone were unknown.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen defeated the creatures emerging from the doors and found that the dead included both demon beasts and demonic beasts.
• They chose to charge toward the strongest door, but a tremor and collapse-like sound transported them to another part of the Forbidden Zone.
• Su Jiu calculated that the distortions occurred at one-hour intervals, and she and Chu Luohen waited through another cycle while noticing signs that humans had been killed and consumed.
• After the next distortion, Su Jiu and Chu Luohen observed that fewer doors remained but their laws were stronger, and they conjectured that the doors and connected spaces were merging as someone broke their spatial walls.
• Su Jiu proposed joining the person outside who was destroying the Forbidden Zone, but Chu Luohen advised her against it because that person had a clear view of the entire place.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen escaped the Forbidden Zone’s law-bound woods as its barriers collapsed and rushed toward the densest demonic qi. There, the Heaven-Connecting Tower began rising, and Su Jiu suddenly found herself in a pure white world where she sensed someone familiar.

• Su Jiu accepted Chu Luohen’s warning that they could not control or destroy the Forbidden Zone while trapped within its laws.
• The darkness briefly swallowed Su Jiu and Chu Luohen, then lifted to reveal that the laws had vanished, the demonic beasts were gone, and the Linnan Region was visible again.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen found many dead cultivators, magic beasts, and demon beasts as they headed toward the densest demonic qi.
• A violent tremor led Su Jiu and Chu Luohen to the Heaven-Connecting Tower, which had risen six floors from the earth, and Su Jiu cried out Yun Huanling’s name.
• Su Jiu appeared in a pure white space where a path formed beneath her steps, and a familiar voice called, “A Jiu.”

Su Jiu met Yun Huanling in a fading space and learned that one of her Nine-Petal Frostflow petals had restored his divine soul. Yun Huanling returned the petal to her mark and faded away, leaving Su Jiu unable to say goodbye before she awoke.

• Su Jiu followed Yun Huanling's voice and found him as a fading soul, where he told her his sacrifice had been his own choice.
• Yun Huanling recalled their early days together and explained that Su Jiu's eighth petal had rebuilt his divine soul during Tribulation Transcendence.
• Yun Huanling told Su Jiu he had only confirmed the petal's origin after his memories returned and he met her Junior Granduncle.
• Yun Huanling used the Heaven-Connecting Tower's power to hold Su Jiu still and return the petal to her mark, restoring its eight petals.
• Yun Huanling faded away as Su Jiu tried to stop him, and Su Jiu's physical body opened its eyes.

Yun Huanling recounted how his love for Su Jiu drove him to overcome his limits as a combat-weak divination cultivator. After surviving perilous training, he gained the ability to fight beside her, though he still believed he was unworthy of her.

• Yun Huanling recalled falling in love with Su Jiu despite her harsh treatment and feeling no similar affection for Ming Yun.
• After Su Jiu collapsed in a pool of blood, Yun Huanling entered seclusion and resolved to learn arts so he would not be helpless again.
• Yun Huanling endured grueling training in arts and swordsmanship, repeatedly challenging the Heavenly Secret Sect's mechanical formation.
• With Qin Ming's help, Yun Huanling secretly entered the Jade Sword Sect's dangerous Sword Pavilion and emerged near death.
• Yun Huanling gained enough strength to fight cultivators at his level and stand beside Su Jiu in battle.

Yun Huanling recalled discovering that he was the Heaven-Connecting Tower and learning that his time with Su Jiu was limited. As the Devil Race’s plan and Xia Jue’s role came to light, he reflected on the memories he and Su Jiu had made, knowing they would soon be lost.

• Yun Huanling remembered how his chest pain and strange memory fragments intensified after meeting Su Jiu and reaching Spirit Transformation.
• Yun Huanling learned he was the Heaven-Connecting Tower, that his existence was not meant to be, and that the Heavenly Dao was warning him his time was running out.
• Yun Huanling recalled tying red Unbounded Silk on Su Jiu and discovering that her Junior Granduncle also carried one of her petals and could borrow her Innate Origin Qi.
• Dao Lord Qing Ci and Xia Jue captured Yun Huanling, and he learned that Xia Jue and Dao Lord Qing Ci were mother and son and that they were working with a demon to revive the Devil Race’s plan.
• Yun Huanling reflected that he and Su Jiu had shared more than a hundred years of memories, but neither of them would likely remember them.

After the Heaven-Connecting Tower appeared, elders explained how it related to the Demon Realm’s descent and the Azure Realm’s fate. Su Jiu awoke to find the tower standing before her and discovered corpses from several sects arranged around it in a formation, leaving her to suspect Xia Jue and Li.

• The elders stopped repairing the Three Great Secret Realms and hurried toward the Linnan Region when the Heaven-Connecting Tower appeared.
• An elder explained that the tower’s return could either open the Heaven-Connecting Gate and seal the demon gate or allow the Azure Realm to merge with the Demon Realm.
• Su Jiu woke after the earthquake and examined the Heaven-Connecting Tower, sensing powerful laws in its markings.
• Chu Luohen drew Su Jiu’s attention to the blood and corpses arranged around the tower in an evil formation.
• Su Jiu recognized disciples from several sects among the dead and wondered whether Xia Jue had helped Li kill them.

Su Jiu confronted Xia Jue over the deaths of her fellow disciples, then entered the Heaven-Connecting Tower with Chu Luohen to stop Li from reaching its summit. After the tower doors closed, the corpses beneath it vanished, and one body transformed into a woman whose chest wound continued to widen.

• Su Jiu found Feng Qi and Ning Hai dead among the corpses and confronted Xia Jue, who appeared and called her his Little Junior Sister.
• Su Jiu asked whether Xia Jue had ever sincerely regarded her as his junior sister, and his mocking response convinced her their bond had been false.
• Xia Jue warned Su Jiu that Li was heading for the top of the Heaven-Connecting Tower, so Su Jiu and Chu Luohen hurried inside.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen entered the tower, whose seven levels tested different aspects of human nature, and the doors closed behind them.
• After the doors closed, the corpses beneath the tower disappeared, and one remaining body transformed from a man into a woman with a growing hole in her chest.

Su Jiu and Chu Luohen explored the Heaven-Connecting Tower, where Yun Chong’s inscription revealed his ancient plea for help against the false Heavenly Dao. As they continued upward, Chu Luohen asked whether Su Jiu would miss him if he disappeared, and she said she would delete some memories after returning to Heaven Beyond Heaven.

• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen entered the tower without falling into the rumored trials, and the Unbounded Silk guided Su Jiu toward the stairs.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen read Yun Chong’s divine-script prayer, and Chu Luohen proposed that Yun Chong had been an immortal who returned to the Azure Realm to aid its true Heavenly Dao.
• Su Jiu and Chu Luohen concluded that Yun Chong and the true Heavenly Dao had opposed Li and the false Heavenly Dao ten thousand years earlier, and that Yun Chong had left preparations for the coming conflict.
• Chu Luohen grew troubled when Su Jiu joked about taking revenge on the one who had brought her to the Azure Realm, then asked whether she would miss him if he disappeared.
• Su Jiu reflected on her absent master, Chu Mojin, before Chu Luohen asked what she wanted to do after returning to Heaven Beyond Heaven.
• Su Jiu said she would probably delete a few things from the Memory Mirror after returning to Heaven Beyond Heaven.

Su Jiu reached the Heaven-Connecting Tower’s rooftop terrace and began purifying the Azure Realm, while Chu Luohen watched her from nearby. As she and the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl repaired the sky, Chu Luohen entered the formation and touched her cheek.

• During the climb, Chu Luohen asked Su Jiu to call him by the name she had used in Heaven Beyond Heaven, but she pulled away and left him behind.
• Su Jiu recognized a Heaven Beyond Heaven formation on the rooftop terrace and decided to purify the Azure Realm without retrieving the petal held by Chu Luohen.
• Su Jiu used her true form to purify the resentful demonic energy, restoring the clouds to white and spreading light across the sky.
• When the black rifts and blood-colored sun resisted her efforts, Su Jiu summoned the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl and sent its nine beads to mend the sky.
• After two hours, the blood-red glow vanished and the rifts began to heal, though the blood-colored sun remained.
• Chu Luohen entered the formation while Su Jiu meditated and stroked her cheek.

Su Jiu regained the ninth petal, awakening her power and the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl, whose purifying energy began healing the world and eradicating demonic beasts. As the changes spread, Yun Chao recognized the Pearl as the world’s salvation and thought he and Su Jiu might never meet again.

• Icy-blue glimmers flowed from Chu Luohen into Su Jiu, completing her ninth petal as Chu Luohen faded beside her.
• Su Jiu’s restored power awakened the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl, sending purifying energy across the world and speeding the healing of rift passages.
• A sword cultivator and his friend watched falling motes of light weaken and eventually erase demonic beasts that had once regenerated after being cut apart.
• Yun Chao recognized the Pearl as something that could save everyone and told his junior disciples there was no need to take it down.
• Yun Chao fought more demonic beasts, thinking Su Jiu would soon accomplish her goal and that they might never see each other again.

As Su Jiu reached the summit, the Azure Realm’s demons weakened, demonic plants withered, and spring returned. Hongguang and the others realized the crisis was ending, while grieving A Ling’s sacrifice and reflecting on Hongguang’s past misjudgment of Su Jiu.

• Across the Azure Realm, demons lost their powers and could no longer revive, demonized cultivators began recovering, and demonic plants withered in the glowing motes of light.
• Liu Zhiyan noticed greenery returning to a mountain, and Qin Ming said the Azure Realm’s nightmare was ending as he reached for the motes.
• Lan Fang Ziyi saw the stars return to their proper courses and realized Su Jiu had likely reached the summit; Hongguang returned and confirmed they were no longer needed outside.
• Lan Fang Ziyi and Hongguang mourned Yun Huanling, recognizing that A Ling had sacrificed himself for A Jiu.
• Hongguang admitted he owed Su Jiu an apology for once calling her a star of calamity, explaining that the False Heavenly Dao had altered her Fate Star’s color to mislead him.

As the light atop the Heaven-Connecting Tower spread, Feng Qi learned that Xia Jue had knowingly made himself a pawn and sacrificed his future to pave the way for A Jiu. After Li's corpse dissolved and the world changed, Xia Jue faded beneath the tower, leaving Feng Qi to carry on.

• Xia Jue told Feng Qi he was leaving the Enforcement Hall in his hands, and Feng Qi begged to know why Xia Jue had chosen this path.
• Feng Qi realized Xia Jue had counted himself among the pieces in the game and already knew Li's secret; he recalled learning that Xia Jue was a half-demon fused with the false Heavenly Dao and had no future.
• Feng Qi guessed that Xia Jue had given up his human cultivation for Li, and Xia Jue implied that he had spared her despite stabbing her heart himself.
• The red sun turned gold, Li's corpse dissolved, and sinister beings across the world vanished in the sunlight as a new substance appeared in the air.
• Xia Jue's figure grew faint as he continued watching the peak of the Heaven-Connecting Tower.

Xia Jue recalled his neglected childhood in the Xia Household, where the new family head tried to kill him after he survived a month locked without food. Ning Hai rescued him and gave him a home in the Azure Tide Sect, and Xia Jue later discovered that his cultivation rose unnaturally without tribulation lightning.

• Xia Jue grew up isolated and mistreated in the Xia Household after his father died and his mother disappeared, and the family disqualified him from inheriting.
• After the old servant died, Xia Jue beat several children who tried to bully him, so the new family head locked him in a dark room and left him without food for a month.
• When Xia Jue survived, the family head accused him of being possessed and formed a fireball to kill him, but Ning Hai intervened and took him away.
• Ning Hai brought Xia Jue to the Azure Tide Sect, gave him a new home, and urged him to preserve his goodness before he began cultivating.
• Xia Jue later learned that Ning Hai had drained his strength to help him, then rose through the sect to command the Enforcement Hall and met Feng Qi.
• After reaching the Golden Core stage, Xia Jue found his cultivation increased on its own, and he concealed that he absorbed spiritual power without ever facing tribulation lightning.

Xia Jue recalled how he had once been manipulated by Li and the false Heavenly Dao into plotting Su Jiu’s death, then explained how he secretly turned against Li and took the false Heavenly Dao’s place. As Li’s plans neared their appointed time, she grew suspicious and decided to eliminate Su Jiu.

• Xia Jue remembered meeting Su Jiu as a child and later learning that she was a god while he was a human-demon, destined to be her natural enemy.
• Xia Jue realized Li and the false Heavenly Dao had manipulated him in his past life into killing Su Jiu, and chose to challenge Li’s plans instead.
• Xia Jue refused Li’s request to strike at Su Jiu, arguing that she still needed him for the final sacrifice.
• After killing Zheng Qilong, Xia Jue seized the false Heavenly Dao’s laws and used them to create the Forbidden Zone, secretly moving most of its supposed sacrifices to the Buddha Child.
• As the appointed time approached, Li grew increasingly anxious and decided to eliminate Su Jiu first.

Xia Jue revealed his half-demon nature to Yun Huanling and persuaded him to help oppose Li, then confronted Li and fought her with strength she had never suspected. As Li realized Xia Jue had been deceiving her all along, he exposed that he had never believed her story about helping him return to the Devil Race.

• Xia Jue told Yun Huanling that Li planned to kill A Jiu and asked for his power, revealing that he was a half-demon who could never become an immortal or a true demon.
• Xia Jue showed Yun Huanling two objects, convincing him of his feelings for A Jiu and winning his agreement to cooperate.
• When Li returned, Xia Jue attacked her and matched her in combat, making her realize he had hidden his true strength and schemed against her.
• Li asked whether Xia Jue had ever intended to help her climb the Heaven-Connecting Tower or return to the Devil Race, and Xia Jue rejected her idea of home.
• Xia Jue reminded Li that he had never believed her fabricated story, then pierced her with an arrow of demonic qi and shattered her defensive barrier.

Xia Jue trapped Li, resisted her attempt to beguile him, and secretly struck her with Su Jiu’s heart blood. He revealed that the blood poisoned demons and was the weapon he had intended to use against Li all along, leaving her unable to use her demonic qi.

• Xia Jue ensnared Li with demonic qi, but Li tried to manipulate him by promising he could stay with Su Jiu if he helped her.
• Li immobilized Yun Huanling and tried to kill Xia Jue, then turned away when she believed Xia Jue was under her spell.
• Xia Jue pierced Li with a black flute carrying Su Jiu’s heart blood, and Li initially thought the wound could not harm her because she was a demon.
• Li’s wound spread and she lost the ability to mobilize her demonic qi as Xia Jue explained that Su Jiu’s flesh and blood poisoned demons.
• Li realized Xia Jue had sought Su Jiu’s heart blood in the Demon-Subduing Land to kill her, and Yun Huanling learned that Xia Jue had only pretended to be beguiled.