Chapter Summaries

Xu Taiping and his companions entered the cave abode and fought off the Blood Skeleton’s ghost creatures while Gu Yu reached the jade platform. Gu Yu broke through two realms, and the defeated Blood Skeleton begged for mercy and offered to lead them to Yuanlingzi and a great opportunity.

• Xu Taiping led Dongfang Yuejian, Xuanzhi, and Gu Yu into the cave abode, where they found blood gourds and a headless corpse seated on an Earth Vein Eye platform.
• The Blood Skeleton attacked with blood infants, ghost corpses, and vengeful spirits, but Xu Taiping’s 𩙥 Flame burned them away repeatedly.
• Xu Taiping identified the corpse as the blood cultivator’s true body and sent Gu Yu to strike it down, while Xuanzhi’s Vajra Six Forms cleared the newly summoned ghosts.
• Gu Yu reached the jade platform and broke through to the Hidden Dragon Realm and the Crouching Dragon Realm in succession.
• The Blood Skeleton transformed into a skeleton, knelt before the group, and offered to take them to Yuanlingzi and the promised fortuitous opportunity if they spared its true body.

Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian questioned Blood Bone about Yuanlingzi after Gu Yu gained a dangerous surge of Magic Power. Blood Bone revealed that Yuanlingzi had vanished after leaving to pursue a great Fortuitous Opportunity, but demanded that the immortals spare his life before he would say where he went.

• Gu Yu sensed the new Magic Power within him, and Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian told him not to use it while Xuanzhi went to watch over him.
• Xu Taiping ordered Blood Bone to stand, then Dongfang Yuejian questioned him about Yuanlingzi and the evil creatures in the Cave Abode.
• Blood Bone revealed that he was Cao Sixi, a traveling peddler whose soul Yuanlingzi had seized and made into a Ghost Servant.
• Blood Bone said Yuanlingzi had disappeared after his latest sleep, leaving a headless body and instructions behind.
• Blood Bone explained that Yuanlingzi had gone to seek a great Fortuitous Opportunity that could help him escape the world's restraints and face Dragon-Slaying Persons.
• Blood Bone refused to reveal where Yuanlingzi had gone unless Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian promised to spare his life, pleading that he had promised his wife and child he would return home.

Xu Taiping exposed Blood Bone Cao Sixi’s false belief that only a few years had passed, and Cao Sixi learned that his wife and child had been dead for over a century. After the Xiezhi jade jue confirmed his honesty, Xu Taiping agreed to hear what Cao Sixi knew and let him return to his hometown before dying; Dongfang Yuejian prepared a talisman to place on him.

• Xu Taiping used Gu Yu’s account of the current era to show that 126 years had passed since Cao Sixi was captured.
• Cao Sixi realized Lady Yu and Afu were likely dead, mourned them, and accused Yuanlingzi of deceiving him about how much time had passed.
• Cao Sixi asked Xu Taiping to eliminate Yuanlingzi and promised to reveal everything he knew, while Xu Taiping asked Dongfang Yuejian to verify his honesty.
• Dongfang Yuejian gave Cao Sixi a Xiezhi jade jue, which glowed azure when he swore that his words were true.
• Xu Taiping accepted Cao Sixi’s deal and agreed to let him return to his hometown before he died.
• Dongfang Yuejian told Cao Sixi to stand and prepared to place a talisman on him for safety.

Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian questioned Cao Sixi about Yuanlingzi and discovered that the blood cultivator had once posed as a village teacher and was plotting to return to the Upper Realm. Cao Sixi produced Yuanlingzi’s map, and Xu Taiping recognized its great elm tree from the fourth vision in his soul imprint.

• Dongfang Yuejian placed a talisman on Cao Sixi that suppressed his killing intent, and Xu Taiping arranged for his clone and Dongfang Yuejian to teach Gu Yu how to cultivate.
• Cao Sixi revealed that Yuanlingzi had once disguised himself as Teacher Red Carp and lured children into the cave, where they suffered and died.
• Cao Sixi recalled Yuanlingzi’s vow to master the Blood Demon Art and return to the Upper Realm to slaughter the righteous sects of the Shangqing Realm.
• Cao Sixi explained that Yuanlingzi had ordered him to guard the cave until he returned, then handed Xu Taiping a beast-hide map left behind by Yuanlingzi.
• Xu Taiping saw an enormous bare-branched elm tree on the map and recognized it from the fourth vision in his great deduction.

Xu Taiping reexamined the fourth scene from his Power of Deduction to understand why the great elm tree would determine the Dragon-Slaying Assembly. He discovered that the Blood Ancestor’s true form was concealed in the tree’s shadow at noon, whose shape formed a strange runic pattern.

• Xu Taiping told Dongfang Yuejian that the great elm tree had appeared in his deduction and would decide the Dragon-Slaying Assembly’s success or failure.
• Dongfang Yuejian warned that Yuanlingzi might revive the Blood Demon and that Teacher Red Carp Gu Yu might be one of Yuanlingzi’s incarnations.
• Xu Taiping asked for a day to consider their next move, while Dongfang Yuejian began searching the cave abode with Cao Sixi.
• Xu Taiping entered the Dragon-Trapping Tower and reviewed the fourth scene from his deduction around the great elm tree.
• At noon in the scene, Xu Taiping found that the tree’s shadow had become viscous and smelled of blood, revealing the Blood Ancestor’s true form.
• Xu Taiping looked down from above and saw the elm tree’s shadow take the shape of a tendriled head forming a strange runic pattern.

Xu Taiping read the Blood Ancestor’s Dragon Script message, learning that the Blood Ancestor planned to awaken soon and join forces with Ao Yan against the Shangqing Realm. He realized Ao Yan had arranged for Yuanlingzi to impersonate Teacher Red Carp, but was left wondering how that could happen before Teacher Red Carp was born.

• Xu Taiping saw Dragon Script form in the great elm tree’s shadow, and the Lotus Eye translated the Blood Ancestor’s message to Ao Yan.
• The message revealed that Yuanlingzi had impersonated a schoolteacher to abduct children and refine them into Blood Infants, while the Blood Ancestor prepared to awaken and feast on Upper Realm cultivators.
• Xu Taiping and the Lotus Eye concluded that the Blood Ancestor would awaken weak and that Ao Yan and Yuanlingzi would lure cultivators to him.
• Xu Taiping inferred that Gu Yu’s Teacher Red Carp was not Yuanlingzi, since both Yuanlingzi and the Blood Ancestor had been asleep when Gu Yu met the teacher.
• Xu Taiping wondered how Ao Yan could have ordered Yuanlingzi to impersonate Teacher Red Carp more than a century before the teacher was born.

Xu Taiping realized Silver Dragon Ao Yan had engineered Gu Yu’s meeting with Yuanlingzi to destroy Gu Yu’s Dao Heart, then uncovered a Dragon Script letter that convinced Dongfang Yuejian the Great Elm Tree opportunity was worth pursuing. The chapter ended with a bounty revealing Yuanlingzi’s suspected presence in Elm Tree Village, and Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian concluded he was luring Dragon-Slaying Persons to feed the Blood Ancestor.

• Xu Taiping and the Lotus Eye deduced that Ao Yan had arranged for Yuanlingzi to impersonate Teacher Red Carp and undermine Gu Yu’s Dao Heart.
• Xu Taiping copied the Dragon Script from the Beast Hide and summoned Dongfang Yuejian away from the others.
• Xu Taiping told Dongfang Yuejian he intended to help Gu Yu reach the Heavenly Dragon Realm within two months by pursuing the Great Elm Tree opportunity.
• Xu Taiping showed Dongfang Yuejian a Dragon Script letter, and she agreed the opportunity was worth the risk after reading it.
• The Battle Merit Ledger issued a bounty for a suspected Blood Demon Cultivator in Elm Tree Village, and Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian suspected Yuanlingzi was luring Dragon-Slaying Persons to feed the Blood Ancestor.

Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian discussed the bounty that confirmed the danger of the Demon Dragon Ao Yan and the Blood Ancestor’s trap, then searched Yuanlingzi’s cave abode for his second treasury. Xu Taiping used his Lotus Root Broken, Yet Its Fibers Remain true intent to follow connections from the spirit marrow stones and Beast Hide parchment to a cavern, leaving them poised to investigate it.

• Dongfang Yuejian and Xu Taiping agreed to keep their suspicions about the trap between themselves and prepare countermeasures against Blood Demon cultivators before approaching Elm Tree Village.
• Blood Bone Cao Sixi told Dongfang Yuejian that Yuanlingzi had a second treasury, but he could not remember which cavern held it.
• Xu Taiping realized Yuanlingzi had handled both the Beast Hide parchment and the spirit marrow stones, and used his true intent to trace their connections.
• Xu Taiping followed the threads several hundred zhang into the passage and identified the cavern where they had found the spirit marrow stones.

Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian found a cavern containing a Spirit Bone Stele, which might help them advance their cultivation techniques. They gathered the cavern’s other treasures and discovered a chest full of talisman-making supplies.

• Xu Taiping followed a thread to the second treasure cavern and punched through the rocks blocking its entrance.
• Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian found an incomplete Spirit Bone Stele, and Dongfang Yuejian said it might help improve their techniques.
• Dongfang Yuejian warned that the Spirit Bone Stele could drain nearby treasures if stored in the Dragon-Trapping Tower, so Xu Taiping decided to carry it out later.
• Xu Taiping collected a trove of superior black essence iron ore, while Dongfang Yuejian suggested saving the Buddhist scripture bamboo slips for Master Xuanzhi.
• Gu Yu found a chest filled with talisman paper, talisman ink, and Rune Brushes.

Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian discovered Golden Millet Paper in a chest and divided it between them. Xu Taiping then shared a runic pattern he had seen while divining the Blood Ancestor, and Dongfang Yuejian confirmed it was the Blood Ancestor’s Demon Seal, which could help them hunt him down.

• Dongfang Yuejian recognized the crumpled Talisman Paper as legendary Golden Millet Paper and explained its rarity to Xu Taiping.
• Xu Taiping offered Dongfang Yuejian the paper, but she insisted on sharing it, and he took ten sheets.
• Xu Taiping told Dongfang Yuejian that his Great Deductive Power had shown him a runic pattern connected to the Blood Ancestor.
• Dongfang Yuejian explained that the Blood Ancestor’s Demon Seal could conceal them from him and his Blood Cultivators and help seal him away again.
• Xu Taiping gave Dongfang Yuejian a Divine Soul Mark of the pattern, and she confirmed it was the Demon Seal.
• Dongfang Yuejian said that drawing an Immortal Rank Demon-Unbinding Talisman with the seal could give them at least a seventy-percent chance of hunting down the Blood Ancestor.

Xu Taiping and his companions secured the karst cave by sealing its underground passage and activating Dongfang Yuejian’s defensive formations. As they watched the Spirit Bone Stele awaken, the group prepared for what it might reveal.

• Dongfang Yuejian used a Profound Rank Earthquake Talisman to block the underground passage, and Xu Taiping confirmed that the group would use Yuanlingzi's Cave Abode as their base.
• Xu Taiping and Xuanzhi reported that they had buried five portions of treasures in the cave walls as formation nodes.
• Dongfang Yuejian activated the Thousand Threads and Ten Thousand Strands Formation with a spirit marrow stone, filling the cave with spiritual threads that could slice intruders apart.
• Dongfang Yuejian set a second formation that plunged the area into darkness and blocked eyesight and divine soul perception.
• The Spirit Bone Stele blazed with light and displayed archaic characters, and Xu Taiping declared that it had awakened.

Xu Taiping and the others explained the Spirit Bone Stele’s limited power of deduction to Gu Yu and advised him to wait until he learned a stronger martial art. Gu Yu insisted on using it to improve the Seven-Kill Blade, and Xu Taiping and his companions allowed him to try.

• Dongfang Yuejian explained that the damaged Spirit Bone Stele could deduce a cultivator’s techniques only three times in their life.
• Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian warned Gu Yu that the ordinary Seven-Kill Blade might yield little improvement and urged him to wait.
• Gu Yu argued that the Seven-Kill Blade suited him and had given him a new lease on life, then asked to use the stele’s power.
• Xuanzhi praised Gu Yu’s determination, and Xu Taiping persuaded Dongfang Yuejian to let him take the risk.
• Dongfang Yuejian agreed, and Gu Yu leaped onto the Jade Platform as she instructed him to press his hand against the stele and keep his mind still.

Gu Yu received the Jade Shatter Art from the Spirit Bone Stele, which his Divine-Human Variant Bone let him use without its usual lethal cost. While Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian discussed their own hopes for the stele, it also upgraded Gu Yu’s Seven-Kill Blade into the supreme-grade Thousand Kills.

• Gu Yu struck the Spirit Bone Stele, which enveloped him in a golden light and imparted its teachings.
• The stele recorded that Gu Yu had obtained the Jade Shatter Art, a deadly technique whose backlash would only damage his foundation because of his Divine-Human Variant Bone.
• Dongfang Yuejian said that acquiring the complete power of One Stroke Opens Heaven could let her draw an Immortal-Rank Demon-Dispelling Talisman using Golden Millet Paper.
• Xu Taiping said he hoped the Spirit Bone Stele would help him advance his fist techniques beyond the Ultimate Realm of the Ancestral Sage Fist.
• The Spirit Bone Stele continued its derivation and upgraded Gu Yu’s Seven-Kill Blade into the supreme-grade Thousand Kills.

Gu Yu gained new cultivation techniques from the Spirit Bone Stele, and Dongfang Yuejian used its power of deduction to complete her inheritance of One Stroke Opens Heaven. With her cultivation bottleneck broken and their chances against the Blood Ancestor improved, she invited Xu Taiping and Xuanzhi to take their turns.

• Gu Yu congratulated himself on his opportunity, then went to a cavern to contemplate Thousand Kills and the Jade Shatter Art.
• Dongfang Yuejian touched the Spirit Bone Stele, which revealed that her Supreme Tianpeng Ritual Script Talismans could be deduced into the Origin Law Fragmentary Text: Innate Sixteen Talismans.
• Dongfang Yuejian rejected that deduction because she wanted the complete inheritance of One Stroke Opens Heaven, and Xu Taiping agreed to let her use the stele again.
• Dongfang Yuejian used her final deduction to complete the fragment of One Stroke Opens Heaven and broke through her cultivation bottleneck, nearing the Heaven Shocking Realm.
• Dongfang Yuejian left the Jade Platform and invited Xu Taiping and Xuanzhi to take their turns.

Xuanzhi used the Spirit Bone Stele to complete his fragment of the Six Paths of Reincarnation Spell, a Buddhist origin law, and Xu Taiping then went to seek an improvement to his Ancestral Sage Fist. Xuanzhi suggested the stele might grant Xu Taiping a request, leaving Dongfang Yuejian astonished as she watched him approach it.

• Xuanzhi said he most wanted to improve the Six Paths of Reincarnation Spell, which the Spirit Bone Stele had once deduced from the Six Livestock Prosperity Spell into a fragment.
• Dongfang Yuejian explained that Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva had used the Six Paths of Reincarnation Spell to claim part of the Netherworld and establish the Eighteen Levels of Avīci Hell.
• The Spirit Bone Stele surrounded Xuanzhi with buddha light and chanting, then recorded that his fragment could be improved into the complete Six Paths of Reincarnation Spell.
• Xu Taiping went to the jade platform and said he most wanted to improve the Ancestral Sage Fist.
• Xuanzhi advised Xu Taiping to commune with the Spirit Bone Stele and said it would grant him at least one request, astonishing Dongfang Yuejian.

Xu Taiping touched the Spirit Bone Stele and entered a conversation with Seventh Master, who granted his request to elevate the Ancestral Sage Fist to the Martial Dao Source Stream level. As soul-weeping pain overwhelmed him, Xu Taiping endured it in hopes of improving his other techniques, while Xuanzhi and Dongfang Yuejian watched outside.

• Xuanzhi explained that the Spirit Bone Stele favored the strongest cultivators, and Dongfang Yuejian realized he had also been chosen by it.
• Xu Taiping touched the Spirit Bone Stele, whose light turned into whirling thunder as he entered a conversation with it through his consciousness.
• Seventh Master told Xu Taiping he could request one cultivation technique improvement, but refused to explain who sent the Spirit Bone Steles or why.
• Xu Taiping asked Seventh Master to elevate his Ancestral Sage Fist to the Martial Dao Source Stream level, and Seventh Master granted the request.
• As soul-weeping pain struck him, Xu Taiping sat down to endure it, while Xuanzhi told Dongfang Yuejian that half a cup of tea was an unusually long time to withstand it.

The Spirit Bone Stele elevated Xu Taiping’s techniques, granting him the Demon Ancestor Heaven-Shaking Fist and several powerful divine abilities. As he considered how to use them against the Blood Ancestor, Dongfang Yuejian reported that Yuanlingzi had captured three teams of dragon-slaying people in Elm Tree Village, prompting a rescue mission.

• The Spirit Bone Stele finished extrapolating Xu Taiping’s techniques, producing a source-stream fist art and upgrading several other techniques and abilities.
• Dongfang Yuejian and Xuanzhi recognized the gains and believed they would improve their chances against the Blood Ancestor.
• Xu Taiping studied the new techniques in his sea of consciousness and assessed their power, uses, and costs.
• Dongfang Yuejian told Xu Taiping that Yuanlingzi had captured three teams of dragon-slaying people in Elm Tree Village.
• The Battle Merit Ledger issued a bounty calling for Xu Taiping and others to rescue the captives before next month’s battle-watching day.

Xu Taiping and Dongfang Yuejian learned that Yuanlingzi had imprisoned several Dragon-Slaying Persons and considered the increased bounty, but Xu Taiping decided they needed more time to prepare before confronting him. A month later, spectators at the Profound Elixir Palace saw someone accept a bounty and wondered whether Xu Taiping's group had finally acted.

• Dongfang Yuejian told Xu Taiping that one of Yuanlingzi's imprisoned teams was likely from the Li Household and that she had found a cavern exit leading outside.
• Xu Taiping learned that Gu Yu was studying the Origin-Burning Scripture and that Great General Pang Zhong had ended the siege of the city, allowing the Heartless Demon Emperor and others to recover.
• Xu Taiping saw that the bounty for Yuanlingzi had risen to nine thousand battle merits but decided to wait another month or two to strengthen their chances against Yuanlingzi, the Blood Ancestor, and Ao Yan.
• Dongfang Yuejian agreed to keep preparing talismans, and Xu Taiping secretly urged her to stock extra talismans without asking why.
• A month later, Chu Xiaoxiao, Chu Tiancheng, Duan Xiaoyu, and Zhang Moyan discussed why Xu Taiping's group had not accepted the nearby bounty, then saw someone accept one and wondered if it was his group.

Spectators hoped Xu Taiping and his two companions would accept the bounties to hunt Yuanlingzi, but their team did not appear on the Dragon-Slaying Ranking. The chapter ended as the eighteen assembled teams prepared to hunt Yuanlingzi at Blood Mist Village, with only the team nearest him set to have its sound broadcast.

• The pavilion's spectators saw Wu Liu, Wu Tun, and Wu Zhuo accept a bounty, and Chu Xiaoxiao was disappointed that Xu Taiping's team was absent.
• Lu Rushuang said Xu Taiping and the others had recovered and were focused on strengthening their Dragon Catcher, while Xiahou Qingyuan argued their refusal to accept the bounties was unwise.
• The Dragon-Slaying Ranking showed that Nine Abysses had accepted the missions, but Xu Taiping's team still had not appeared.
• A Profound Elixir Palace Elder announced that all teams except the Dongfang Clan's had gathered at Elm Tree Village to hunt Yuanlingzi, and that only the team nearest Blood Mist Village would have its sound broadcast.

The Jiang Clan’s three members and their Dragon Catcher, Chi Feng, entered the blood-mist village while Du He used his Qi-gazing skill to guide them through the formation. They encountered a seemingly impossible task from a blind old woman, leaving the group’s fate uncertain as Chu Xiaoxiao gloated.

• The spectators watched the Jiang Clan’s party enter the village, where the sight of tortured villagers stirred anger among the cultivators in Spring Rain Pavilion.
• Du He read the formation’s shifting nodes and guided Jiang Li and the others safely past a courtyard that had trapped an earlier group.
• A blind old woman asked the four to thread her needle, and Du He saw that the needle had no eye and the hemp cord was too thick.
• Chu Xiaoxiao predicted that the Jiang Clan’s four would be finished if they could not complete the task.