Chapter Summaries

Xu Taiping hid with Lin Buyu beneath a water vat as a black-robed figure attacked the flying jiangshi in Listening Wind Tower. The male flying jiangshi fought the intruder, who revealed a demon cultivator’s terrifying body.

• A violent blast and anguished scream sounded from Listening Wind Tower, and black clouds enveloped the tower and rear courtyard.
• Bai Yu warned Xu Taiping that a terrifying presence was searching the area, and the male flying jiangshi told him to hide before charging toward the courtyard entrance.
• Xu Taiping hid beneath a water vat with Lin Buyu, whose Dharma Robe concealed their auras, while he began condensing Red Crow Golden Flame Fire.
• The female flying jiangshi was thrown into the courtyard, and the male flying jiangshi caught her as a black-robed figure emerged from the fog and attacked them.
• The male flying jiangshi and the black-robed figure exchanged blows until the latter’s saber broke; the black-robed figure said he had found Water-Cutting.
• The black-robed figure caught the male flying jiangshi’s frenzied strike with one hand, and Xu Taiping recognized the scorched, lava-cracked arm as belonging to a demon cultivator.

Xu Taiping watched a demon cultivator defeat the flying jiangshi and uncover a Heavenly Fragrance Zhuyan Fruit growing in the female jiangshi’s brain. The male jiangshi revealed himself as Duan Tianya and reclaimed his Woodcutter’s Knife, leaving the demon cultivator badly wounded.

• The demon cultivator shattered the female flying jiangshi’s hair and punched through the male flying jiangshi’s chest.
• The demon cultivator discovered a Heavenly Fragrance Zhuyan Fruit in the female jiangshi’s brain and stored her in a cloth bag.
• The demon cultivator approached the male jiangshi, identifying him as the former Sect Master Duan, the Water-Cutting Blade.
• The male jiangshi opened his eyes, unleashed a vast pressure, and revealed himself as Duan Tianya.
• Duan Tianya called the Woodcutter’s Knife back to him, and its blade qi tore the demon cultivator’s arm apart.

Duan Tianya fought the Demon Cultivator and used the force of heaven and earth across Pima Mountain to cut him down, but the Demon Cultivator began regenerating after Duan Tianya collapsed from exhaustion. Duan Tianya freed the female Flying Jiangshi's corpse and asked Xu Taiping, hidden in a water jar, to burn the Demon Cultivator.

• The Demon Cultivator restored his severed arm and challenged Duan Tianya, but Duan Tianya revealed the true form of his Firewood Cleaver and overwhelmed him with successive strikes.
• The Demon Cultivator summoned a bloodstained stone gate and fled as demonic qi, but Duan Tianya used the force of heaven and earth across Pima Mountain to strike him down.
• Duan Tianya's final barrage reduced the Demon Cultivator to flesh and blood, then left Duan Tianya kneeling and withered from the effort.
• The Demon Cultivator regenerated half his face and taunted Duan Tianya, who released the female Flying Jiangshi's corpse from the Demon Cultivator's cloth bag.
• Duan Tianya asked Xu Taiping to burn the Demon Cultivator, and Xu Taiping agreed from inside the water jar.

Xu Taiping confronted the nameless demon cultivator after the battle with the old man and learned that Su Chan had joined the Nine Nether. He launched a surprise attack, but the demon cultivator broke free of his ice and counterattacked.

• Xu Taiping carried Lin Buyu into the courtyard, where Duan Tianya watched as the nameless demon cultivator rebuilt his body.
• The nameless demon cultivator threatened Xu Taiping and invoked the Nine Nether, but Xu Taiping asked whether he had met Su Chan.
• The demon cultivator revealed that Su Chan was the Nine Nether's Demon Venerable and offered Xu Taiping a chance to join the faction.
• Xu Taiping refused, drew Spring Tiger, and used an illusion, icy breath, and a finger strike to attack the demon cultivator.
• The nameless demon cultivator broke free of the ice and formed his head into an eagle-claw-shaped bloodlight that lunged at Xu Taiping.

Xu Taiping destroyed the Nameless Demon Cultivator’s Demon Seed, but the Ghost-Sealing Seal drained his Blood Qi as it captured the demon’s Divine Essence. When a black flood dragon attacked Listening Wind Tower, Duan Tianya and Lin Buyu fought back, and Lin Buyu ultimately destroyed it with Heaven-Splitting.

• Xu Taiping used Crowfire to destroy the Nameless Demon Cultivator’s Demon Seed, while the Ghost-Sealing Seal captured the demon’s escaping Divine Essence and began draining Xu Taiping’s Blood Qi.
• Duan Tianya recognized Xu Taiping’s Three-Talents Ghost-Sealing Talisman as a black flood dragon appeared above Listening Wind Tower and attacked with black flame.
• Duan Tianya drove the flood dragon back with his saber, but he coughed violently and showed how badly his strength had failed.
• Xu Taiping used a Sea-Splitting strike from the Azure Luan Ring to knock the flood dragon’s tail aside, while Duan Tianya continued defending him.
• Lin Buyu appeared before Xu Taiping and Duan Tianya, unleashed Sword Qi to send the flood dragon flying, then used Heaven-Splitting to tear it apart.

Xu Taiping and Duan Tianya learned that Lin Buyu shared her body with Lin Buyan, an Exiled Immortal who had awakened her past-life memories. At the Listening Wind Tower, Duan Tianya revealed that Xu Taiping’s Dragon Gall Wine had helped him awaken his own past-life memories, and Lin Buyan showed an intense interest in the wine.

• Xu Taiping recognized that the woman before him was not acting like Lin Buyu and drew his saber, while Duan Tianya stood ready beside him.
• Lin Buyu explained that her other self, Lin Buyan, had awakened memories from a past life and was an Exiled Immortal.
• Lin Buyu and Xu Taiping agreed to keep each other’s secrets, and Duan Tianya identified himself as nearing the end of his allotted time and called them a Mortal Bone Dao cultivator and a Fated One.
• Xu Taiping helped Duan Tianya to the Listening Wind Tower, where Duan Tianya asked whether he had any wine left.
• Duan Tianya confirmed that Xu Taiping’s Dragon Gall Wine had awakened his past-life memories, and Lin Buyan tried to emerge before Lin Buyu pulled her back and warned her.

Xu Taiping learned how Duan Tianya and Lu Yushi became Corpse Wraiths in the immortal mansion ruins and heard Duan Tianya’s suspicion that Nine Nether had turned the ruins into a medicine garden. Duan Tianya warned that the blood medicine being cultivated there might be a demon lotus capable of raising a Demon Venerable to Devil Master.

• Duan Tianya explained that Dragon Gall Wine awakened the remnant soul he had sealed in Water-Cutting, allowing him to strike the Demon Cultivator once.
• Duan Tianya recounted his history with Lu Yushi, his former disciple Shang Jiu, and the dungeon where he had spent ten years hoping Lu Yushi would come to him.
• Xu Taiping deduced that someone had refined Duan Tianya and Lu Yushi into Corpse Wraiths and placed them in the ruins to nurture the Heavenly Fragrance Zhuyan Fruit.
• Duan Tianya suspected Shang Jiu had allied with Nine Nether and said the immortal mansion ruins had become a medicine garden where cultivators’ flesh and blood nourished blood medicines.
• Duan Tianya warned Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu that the Nine Nether cultivators might be harvesting a demon lotus that could let a Demon Venerable ascend to Devil Master.

Duan Tianya explained the Demon Lotus and warned Xu Taiping about the danger posed by Nine Nether’s cultivators. Before they parted, he suppressed the Blade Ghost sealed in Xu Taiping’s palm, reducing its drain on Xu Taiping’s blood qi.

• Duan Tianya told Xu Taiping that Demon Lotuses required cultivator blood to grow and served as blood medicine for a Demon Venerable seeking to become a Devil Master.
• Duan Tianya said the Yunmeng Marsh ruins’ barrier would prevent a Demon Venerable from entering, explained how dead cultivators became Corpse Wraiths there, and warned Xu Taiping to hide after obtaining what he sought.
• Duan Tianya noticed the Blade Ghost sealed in Xu Taiping’s Ghost-Sealing Talisman and asked to see it.
• Duan Tianya struck the Talisman Seal twice with his blade intent, suppressing the Blade Ghost and making the seal’s drain on Xu Taiping’s blood qi nearly imperceptible.

Duan Tianya passed his Demon-Slaying Blade techniques and Water-Cutting Blade to Xu Taiping, believing in his potential despite his mortal bones. He also gave Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu cultivation letters and jade bracelets that could activate the Listening Wind Tower’s Teleportation Array.

• Duan Tianya told Xu Taiping that he had killed a cultivator in the Transformation Realm despite reaching only the peak of Spirit Refining.
• Duan Tianya transmitted the Demon-Slaying Blade manual to Xu Taiping and explained that he had created it after being expelled from the Heavenly Blade Sect.
• Duan Tianya insisted that Xu Taiping take Water-Cutting, explaining that a mortal-boned cultivator named Zhang Tianze had once fought the Devil Master of Youyun Province.
• Xu Taiping accepted the blade and promised not to disgrace Duan Tianya’s techniques or weapon.
• Duan Tianya gave Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu letters about cultivation and jade bracelets that could activate the Teleportation Array within the Immortal Mansions ruins.

Duan Tianya explained why cultivators with dual souls were called Fated Ones and warned Lin Buyu about the danger of revealing hers to demon cultivators. As Lu Yushi began recovering, Duan Tianya asked Xu Taiping to gather seven white crystal chrysanthemums so he could keep a promise he had broken centuries earlier.

• Duan Tianya gave Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu jade bracelets that could unleash a powerful True Words Spell when they joined hands and united their hearts.
• Duan Tianya explained that demon cultivators hunted people with mortal bones and dual souls, and said a prophecy named a dual-souled cultivator as the Devil Race's destined calamity.
• Duan Tianya warned Lin Buyu to conceal her dual soul from demon cultivators, and she thanked him.
• Lu Yushi began recovering from her injuries, and Duan Tianya told Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu that he would soon vanish and become a corpse wraith.
• Duan Tianya asked Xu Taiping to pick seven white crystal chrysanthemums, explaining that he had once promised Lu Yushi he would return by the time she plucked their petals.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu activated the Listening Wind Tower’s teleportation array and arrived at the Rain and Dew Garden, where four Cloudview Palace disciples ambushed them. The chapter ended with Xu Taiping readying his Spring Tiger Saber as Senior Brother Song demanded their surrender.

• Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu held hands to activate the teleportation array and traveled toward the Peony Pavilion in the Rain and Dew Garden.
• Duan Tianya offered the awakened Flying Jiangshi Girl a bouquet of White Crystal Chrysanthemums, and she tore the flowers apart before a scream rang through the Listening Wind Tower.
• Four Cloudview Palace disciples surrounded the Peony Pavilion and prepared to attack anyone who teleported there.
• Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu appeared in the pavilion, and Senior Brother Song demanded that they surrender.
• Lin Buyu asked Xu Taiping if they were surrounded, and Xu Taiping agreed as he reached for the Spring Tiger Saber.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu defeated Cloudview Palace’s guards and learned that the Young Palace Master and two elders had cornered Xu Ziyan’s group in the medicine garden to seize the Dragon Fang Fruit. Xu Taiping spotted the group under attack and realized they were close to being overwhelmed.

• Xu Taiping defeated the five Cloudview Palace disciples, then forced Senior Brother Song to reveal that the Young Palace Master and two elders had surrounded Xu Ziyan and the others.
• Senior Brother Song disclosed that the elders controlled more than thirty corpse wraiths, including two hairy jiangshi, while the Young Palace Master used qin music to disrupt formations.
• Lin Buyu summoned Lin Buyan and bargained with her to use Flute Notes to counter the Young Palace Master’s music.
• Xu Taiping climbed onto the courtyard wall and saw Xu Ziyan’s group pinned near the ancient tree as the corpse wraiths battered their Cloud-Piercing Sword Formation.
• Xu Taiping noticed Zhou Ao defending Xu Ziyan while wounded, and Lin Buyu warned that the group would not hold out much longer.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu charged into the battle to reach the Cloud-Piercing Sword Formation, while Xu Taiping used his martial arts and physique to break through Cloudview Palace’s Corpse Wraiths. He was injured by a sound attack but kept advancing with Lin Buyu and Lin Buyan.

• Zhou Ao used his last True Fire Talisman to set a Hairy Jiangshi aflame, giving Xu Ziyan and the others time to adjust the sword formation and drive back Cloudview Palace’s attack.
• Xu Taiping feinted at Cloudview Palace’s Young Palace Master, then turned and charged toward the Cloud-Piercing Sword Formation, cutting through Corpse Wraiths with Spring Tiger.
• Lin Buyu appeared as her Dharma Robe’s invisibility wore off, and Cloudview Palace’s elders recalled two Hairy Jiangshi to stop her and Xu Taiping.
• Xu Taiping released the turbid qi weighing down his body, knocked aside both Hairy Jiangshi, and continued fighting through the Corpse Wraiths as Lin Buyan followed.
• A zither melody bound Xu Taiping with sound threads, letting a White Jiangshi strike his chest, but he broke free and split the attacker’s head with his saber.

Xu Taiping fought the Cloudview Palace elders while Lin Buyan helped him reach Xu Ziyan’s group, and he hurled Lin Buyu into the Cloud-Piercing Sword Formation so she could join it. The elders attacked him in fury, but Xu Taiping used a clone to strike Elder Lin with his blade.

• Lin Buyan used her flute to shatter the Young Palace Master’s sound-wave attack and overwhelm him, giving Xu Taiping a path through the Corpse Wraiths.
• Xu Taiping cleared the enemies near him with the Azure Luan Ring, then threw Lin Buyu into the Cloud-Piercing Sword Formation, where Xu Ziyan caught her.
• Lin Buyu confirmed that she could join the formation as the two Cloudview Palace elders launched a joint attack on Xu Taiping.
• Xu Taiping used the seventh kill of the Seven-Kill Blade to halt the elders’ attacks, then concealed his movement with the Mist-Borrowing Technique.
• Elder Lin struck Xu Taiping’s clone, but Xu Taiping appeared behind him and slashed his chest.

Xu Taiping killed Elder Sun with the final blow of his One Hundred and Eight Fists while Lin Buyu protected him from the surrounding attacks. Jing Hao and Elder Lin fled, but Xu Ziyan revealed that a hairy jiangshi had stolen the Dragon Fang Fruit during the fight.

• Xu Taiping wounded Elder Lin, then attacked Elder Sun through the fog as Elder Lin warned him about Xu Taiping’s clone.
• Xu Taiping’s punches broke through Elder Sun’s defenses, and Jing Hao and Elder Lin tried to stop his final strike with a gale and Corpse Wraiths.
• Lin Buyu activated the formation, scattering the gale and striking the Corpse Wraiths with sword qi as Xu Taiping killed Elder Sun with his hundred-and-eighth punch.
• Jing Hao grabbed Elder Lin and fled, while Xu Ziyan stopped Xu Taiping from pursuing them and warned that Jing Hao might retaliate with an Immortal Treasure.
• Xu Ziyan told Xu Taiping that a hairy jiangshi transformed from a female corpse had stolen the Dragon Fang Fruit during the battle.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu entered a sealed cellar to retrieve the Dragon Fang Fruit stolen by a Hairy Jiangshi, despite being unable to use True Essence or Spiritual Power inside. They found that the cellar had once stored spirit herbs, then encountered the Hairy Jiangshi as it attacked Xu Taiping.

• Xu Ziyan explained that a Hairy Jiangshi had stolen the Dragon Fang Fruit and fled into a cellar where True Essence and Spiritual Power could not be used.
• Xu Taiping agreed to enter the cellar, and Lin Buyu joined him with her protective Dharma Robe.
• Lin Buyan revealed that the cellar had likely been Rain and Dew Garden's spirit-herb storehouse.
• Xu Taiping lifted several heavy stone gates with his physical strength and reached the cellar interior with Lin Buyu.
• A long-haired Hairy Jiangshi attacked Xu Taiping while he held up a stone gate, and Lin Buyu rammed into it but was sent flying back.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu subdued a Hairy Jiangshi whose ancient swordsmanship suggested she had once been a cultivator in the immortal mansion ruins. When the Hairy Jiangshi revealed a hidden entrance beneath the cellar, they prepared to descend in search of the Dragon Fang Fruit.

• Lin Buyu was knocked aside by the Hairy Jiangshi, and Xu Taiping fought it with his saber despite being wounded by its skilled swordsmanship.
• Lin Buyan identified the Hairy Jiangshi’s sword techniques as ancient and told Xu Taiping to immobilize it so she could control it with Flute Notes.
• Xu Taiping shattered the Hairy Jiangshi’s joints, and Lin Buyan’s flute calmed it long enough for Lin Buyu and Xu Taiping to inspect the cellar.
• Lin Buyu and Xu Taiping searched the ruined herb warehouse for the Dragon Fang Fruit but found no sign of it.
• The Hairy Jiangshi opened a hidden floor entrance by moving a box and knocking on the wall, and Lin Buyu and Xu Taiping decided to go below.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu found Grass Return Pills, a pill furnace, and Dragon Fang Fruit in the cellar, then discovered the female Hairy Jiangshi writing a message to her master. The message revealed she had been trapped there for 107 years.

• Xu Taiping uncovered an invisible box containing two Grass Return Pills, and he and Lin Buyu each took one.
• Xu Taiping found a pill furnace, and Lin Buyan explained the uses and dangers of Dragon Fang Fruit before they divided the fruit.
• The female Hairy Jiangshi began carving a message into a stone table, starting with a note to her honored master that she had been trapped in the cellar for 107 years.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu read a dying Taixuan Sect disciple’s warning that mortal bone cultivators caused the Great Void Calamity, but Lin Buyan knew nothing of the calamity or the sect. Lin Buyan then connected the letter to an ancient legend about the origins of cultivation in the Shangqing Realm.

• Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu read a letter from a Taixuan Sect disciple trapped underground, who warned that the Great Void Calamity remained and urged strangers to kill mortal bone cultivators.
• Lin Buyu rejected the letter, while Lin Buyan said she had never heard of the Sumeru Realm, Taixuan Sect, or Great Void Calamity.
• Lin Buyan explained that the Shangqing Realm contained six heavens and that the True Martial Heaven was the lowest and smallest.
• Xu Taiping wondered whether the Taixuan Sect lay beyond their domain and considered asking Fairy Lingyue about it.
• Lin Buyan recounted a legend that six stone steles brought three hundred origin laws to humanity and classified spirit bones into four grades, with all others deemed mortal bones.

Xu Taiping learned that the Spirit Bone Steles may have come from a broken ancient stele bearing a warning about Mortal Bones, then took the letter and Corpse Wraith from the cellar. After recovering the Dragon Fang Fruit, he guarded Sixth Peak’s courtyard while practicing the Demon-Slaying Blade, and a familiar voice called to him.

• Lin Buyan told Xu Taiping that Spirit Bone Steles were fragments of an ancient stele and advised him to destroy the letter to prevent persecution of cultivators with Mortal Bones.
• Xu Taiping stored the letter and female Corpse Wraith for Fairy Lingyue to examine, then Lin Buyu took control and led him out.
• Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu delivered the recovered Dragon Fang Fruit to Senior Sister Ziyan and the other Sixth Peak senior sisters, who began setting up a barrier in a secluded courtyard.
• Xu Taiping practiced the Demon-Slaying Blade while guarding the courtyard and used its Blade Force to kill the Corpse Wraiths approaching through the ruins.
• A familiar voice called to Xu Taiping from behind him.