Chapter Summaries

Xu Taiping and Shang Jiu began a saber duel without their Flood Dragon Tokens, relying on their tempered physiques. Xu Taiping’s strength surpassed Shang Jiu’s expectations and wounded him, leaving their fight unresolved.

• Xu Taiping told Shang Jiu he had planned for the duel since learning Shang Jiu’s identity, citing his betrayal of his master and Senior Sister.
• Shang Jiu sent Xiao Yuan aside, revealed his powerful Martial Venerable Realm physique, and challenged Xu Taiping to a physical contest.
• Xu Taiping remained unfazed and took the opening stance of Crane Cry as Shang Jiu circled him for an opening.
• After Xiao Yuan sneezed, Shang Jiu launched a fast, forceful slash, and Xu Taiping knocked his saber aside and counterattacked.
• Shang Jiu dodged Xu Taiping’s follow-up strikes but suffered a shallow wound across his waist and abdomen, then acknowledged Xu Taiping’s superior physique.

Xu Taiping used his Blade Domain experience and gradually layered Thousandfold Force to injure Shang Jiu’s blade hand during their exchange. Shang Jiu caught on before his hand was crippled, then switched his blade to his left hand and revealed that he had trained it to be even stronger than his right.

• Shang Jiu attacked Xu Taiping with increasingly fast and tricky blade strikes, but Xu Taiping blocked each one through his extensive experience fighting Blade Ghost.
• Shang Jiu tried to drive Xu Taiping into a dead corner, while Xu Taiping quietly increased the Thousandfold Force in their blade clashes.
• Shang Jiu realized the accumulating force had badly damaged his blade hand and leapt back before it could be crippled.
• Xu Taiping admitted he had nearly ruined Shang Jiu’s hand, and Shang Jiu praised his tactics before explaining his left-handed blade training.
• Shang Jiu transferred his blade to his left hand and said it had become stronger than his right.

Xu Taiping and Shang Jiu fought a brutal saber contest, repeatedly clashing with hidden force while Xu Taiping sacrificed his senses to renew All Beings Are Equal. After Spring Tiger Twenty-One broke, Xu Taiping refused to concede and raised his empty hand as if it were still a saber.

• Xu Taiping renewed All Beings Are Equal by trading away his sense of touch, then exchanged words with Shang Jiu about regrets and the path of cultivation.
• Shang Jiu declared that Xu Taiping was like a junior brother and challenged him to prove himself worthy of inheriting Old Codger's saber techniques.
• Xu Taiping and Shang Jiu repeatedly clashed sabers with hidden force, suffering grievous wounds until both fell and struggled back to their feet.
• Demoness Su Su briefly recovered her cultivation when All Beings Are Equal faded, but Xu Taiping renewed the power and suppressed her again.
• Shang Jiu noticed Xu Taiping had traded away his eyes, yet Xu Taiping continued to strike accurately until Spring Tiger Twenty-One broke.
• Shang Jiu told Xu Taiping to admit defeat, but Xu Taiping discarded the broken hilt and raised his hand in a saber-gripping posture, refusing to concede.

Xu Taiping defeated Shang Jiu with Water-Cutting and received a jade token, then asked Patriarch Kasyapa’s divine sense to protect his senior siblings and punish those who had plotted against them. That night, the Duedu Asura appeared at a manor to attack Ye Xuan, Jin Hezhi, and the Black-Robed Man.

• Xu Taiping used Water-Cutting to cleave Shang Jiu’s Blood Blade and wound him, and Shang Jiu revealed that someone had deceived him about the bodies sent to Yunmeng Marsh.
• Shang Jiu gave Xu Taiping a jade token and told him to find him at Wind Blade Valley in Youyou Heaven when his cultivation improved, then warned him that True Martial Heaven would soon lose its peace.
• Xu Taiping asked Patriarch Kasyapa’s divine sense to save his senior brother and sister and punish those who had plotted against them, and the divine sense agreed to send the Duedu Asura after the culprits.
• The Black-Robed Man instructed Ye Xuan to improve his swordsmanship while Jin Hezhi reported that Dugu Qingxiao was doomed at Heavenly Sound Hall.
• The eight-armed Duedu Asura appeared at the manor and attacked Ye Xuan, Jin Hezhi, and the Black-Robed Man.

Xu Taiping dreamed that the Demon Lotus multiplied across a lake before a boy formed from a hand-shaped tree swallowed the lotus and merged it with the tree. He woke in an old house beside Dugu Qingxiao and asked how long he had been asleep.

• Xu Taiping awoke in a dream beside a glowing, hand-shaped tree and watched the Demon Lotus spread across the lake.
• A boy formed from the tree destroyed the lotus faces, gathered the black lotuses into one seed, and swallowed it.
• A black lotus grew around the great tree, merging with it as Xu Taiping heard Lingyue, Bai Yu, and Ping'an calling for him.
• Xu Taiping woke in an old house and recognized Dugu Qingxiao watching a pill furnace.
• Dugu Qingxiao reacted with disbelief and excitement when Xu Taiping spoke, and Xu Taiping asked how long he had been asleep.

After waking from a month and a half unconscious, Xu Taiping learned that Ancient Buddha Kasyapa had saved his Second Senior Brother and returned Xu Ziyan’s soul, though complications remained. Qingxiao prepared a Soul-Calming Pill for him and promised to explain what happened in the Thousand Buddha Kingdom after taking him to see Ziyan.

• Xu Taiping woke after a month and a half, and Fairy Lingyue explained that activating the Heavenly Dao precepts had cost him four of his five senses and nearly left his soul with the Ancient Buddha.
• Xu Taiping told Fairy Lingyue about meeting Ancient Buddha Kasyapa, and she explained that Kasyapa had freed Qingxiao from the Bodhi Fruit’s influence and returned Xu Ziyan’s sealed soul.
• Fairy Lingyue recounted that an asura dharma aspect had attacked cultivators at a manor near Wolf-Howling Ridge while proclaiming itself the Evil-Delivering Asura.
• Dugu Qingxiao’s Pill Furnace burst, and he presented Xu Taiping with a Soul-Calming Pill made from herbs he and Chen Hao had gathered by robbing cultivators throughout the Thousand Buddha Kingdom.
• Xu Taiping asked Qingxiao why his blood letter had said that if he survived, Xu Ziyan could only die, and Qingxiao offered to take him to see Ziyan and explain what had happened.

Dugu Qingxiao explained how Su Chan and Jin Hezhi had plotted against him in the Thousand Buddha Kingdom, leaving Xu Taiping to understand that the scheme was tied to the Azure Profound Sect's leadership. Su Chan’s deeper reason for trying to force Ninth Uncle to act remained unknown.

• Xu Taiping learned that Dugu Qingxiao and Ziyan had been watched and manipulated since they began searching for the Flood Dragon Token, and that their bracelets had helped them uncover the plot and escape.
• Dugu Qingxiao explained that the conspirators had removed Ziyan’s Bodhi Fruit and trapped her soul, so he planned to save her with the fruit inside himself; he suspected his escape had also been part of their scheme.
• Dugu Qingxiao revealed that Su Chan and Jin Hezhi had conspired against him because their allies opposed Ninth Uncle and wanted to prevent Qingxiao from challenging Sect Master Zhou Tong to a Sword Inquiry.
• Dugu Qingxiao told Xu Taiping that Su Chan had also engineered earlier incidents to provoke Ninth Uncle, though he did not know Su Chan’s true motive.

Xu Taiping and Dugu Qingxiao agreed to prepare for a Sword Inquiry against the Azure Profound Sect’s sect master, while Xu Taiping stayed in the Thousand Buddha Kingdom to cultivate and help search for its Heavenly Dao’s Seven-Regulated Verse. The chapter left Xu Taiping flying toward the kingdom’s Annihilation Grounds with Bai Yu.

• Dugu Qingxiao told Xu Taiping he would feed the Bodhi Fruit to Xu Ziyan after recovering, then challenge the sect master to a Sword Inquiry at the Seven Peaks Grand Competition in three years.
• Dugu Qingxiao planned to enter Fallen Longyuan to gain the strength needed to challenge the sect master and try to pull the Azure Profound Sect back onto the Orthodox Path.
• Xu Taiping insisted on joining the effort despite Qingxiao’s warning that Ye Xuan, now Su Chan’s disciple, might attack him at the competition.
• Xu Taiping and Dugu Qingxiao agreed that Qingxiao would take Xu Ziyan back to Qingxuan while Xu Taiping stayed in the Thousand Buddha Kingdom to cultivate for three years.
• Five days after parting with Qingxiao, Xu Taiping rode Bai Yu toward the Thousand Buddha Kingdom’s Annihilation Grounds to search for the Heavenly Dao’s Seven-Regulated Verse at Ancient Buddha Kasyapa’s request.

Xu Taiping completed the three-year restoration of the Reclining Buddha and received Buddhist Prayer Beads granting him the power of All Beings Are Equal. As Cloudview Palace cultivators arrived to claim the statue, he took up his Flood Dragon Token and released his suppressed aura.

• Fairy Lingyue tested Xu Taiping’s transformed left eye, which concealed and accumulated power when closed but unleashed destruction when opened, while it consumed his Gold Essence Coins.
• Fairy Lingyue explained that Gold Essence Coins contained solar essence stone, and Bai Yu brought Xu Taiping and Fairy Lingyue to the broken Reclining Buddha in the Land of Annihilation.
• Three years later, Xu Taiping fitted the final fragment into the Buddha Statue, restoring it, and Ancient Buddha Kasyapa gave him Buddhist Prayer Beads inscribed with All Beings Are Equal.
• Xu Taiping told Ancient Buddha Kasyapa he would leave to attend Qingxuan’s Seven Peaks Grand Competition, just as cultivators from Cloudview Palace arrived to claim the statue.
• Xu Taiping retrieved his Flood Dragon Token, and his suppressed aura burst forth as his body grew larger and more powerful.

After three years in the Wilderness, Xu Taiping revealed his tempered python flood dragon physique to Cloudview Palace cultivators and discovered that a rock he had found was valuable Chaos Stone. More Cloudview Palace cultivators arrived, and their leader ordered Xu Taiping to leave, setting up a confrontation.

• Xu Taiping’s python flood dragon physique frightened the Cloudview Palace cultivators, and Senior Brother Liang apologized for his junior’s earlier rudeness.
• Xu Taiping asked why so many Cloudview Palace cultivators had come, while Senior Brother Liang questioned his identity and explained how his sect obtained Chaos Stone.
• Xu Taiping showed the cultivators a large rock he had found, and Senior Brother Liang concealed his excitement and intent to claim it.
• More than a dozen Mystic Understanding Realm cultivators arrived, including Senior Brother Qin, who told Senior Brother Liang to order Xu Taiping to leave.

Xu Taiping agreed to guard the Buddha Statue for another hour in exchange for a Buddha Plaque, then faced down the Cloudview Palace cultivators while they waited for reinforcements. He took their Gold Essence Coins to stall for time as the restrictions on the statue continued to activate.

• Venerable Jiaye asked Xu Taiping to protect the Buddha Statue for another hour and offered him a Buddha Plaque inscribed with the stillness character mantra.
• Xu Taiping agreed, raised his physique to the awakened flood dragon realm, and warned the Cloudview Palace cultivators that he would not give them the stone or let them damage the statue.
• The Liang cultivator and the Qin cultivator decided to stall Xu Taiping while contacting their approaching elders.
• The Liang cultivator pretended to propose joining forces, and Xu Taiping demanded Gold Essence Coins in exchange.
• The Liang cultivator handed Xu Taiping a pouch containing a hundred Gold Essence Coins, and the Qin cultivator added another three hundred while secretly planning to attack once the elders arrived.

Xu Taiping demanded three thousand Gold Essence Coins from Cloudview Palace, then confronted the arriving elders after they refused to pay. He defeated Elder Yun Zhong with one punch, leaving the clash with the other powerful cultivators about to begin.

• Xu Taiping refused Cloudview Palace’s offer of four hundred Gold Essence Coins and demanded three thousand before agreeing to help.
• Liang and Qin welcomed the arrival of Elder Yun Zhong, Zhu Chen, and Ouyang Xuan, expecting their group to overpower Xu Taiping.
• Fairy Lingyue reminded Xu Taiping that the three newcomers had taken part in the attempt to kill his Second Senior Brother at Star-Plucking Terrace.
• Xu Taiping challenged the elders to fight after they dismissed his demand for payment.
• Yun Zhong attacked with Wind-Thunder Palm, but Xu Taiping shattered its palm shadow and punched him flying with Mountain-Shaking Form.

Xu Taiping fought Yun Zhong, Zhu Chen, and Ouyang Xuan to protect the Buddha statue, using All Beings Are Equal to overwhelm the three elders. As the Cloudview Palace disciples began to flee, Venerable Jiaye asked Xu Taiping to stop them because he still had use for them.

• Xu Taiping struck Yun Zhong hard enough to break his life-saving treasure, then demanded that the cultivators surnamed Liang and Qin hand over their coins and possessions and leave.
• Yun Zhong refused Xu Taiping’s terms, and he, Zhu Chen, and Ouyang Xuan joined forces to attack him with their spirit treasures.
• Xu Taiping activated All Beings Are Equal, suppressing the three elders’ cultivation and treasures before battering them with the Heaven-Rending Stance.
• As Cloudview Palace disciples fled, Venerable Jiaye asked Xu Taiping not to let them escape.

Xu Taiping and his spirit beasts captured the cultivators who had tried to kill his Second Senior Brother, and he prepared to kill them. Yun Zhong stopped him by revealing that a mysterious person and the Poison King Cult’s Holy Maiden had hired the Ghost Market assassin Blood Hand to kill Xu Taiping, who was now being hunted in Black-Clothed Town.

• Xu Taiping sent Bai Yu and Ping'an to capture the fleeing cultivators and herd them before the Reclining Buddha statue.
• Xu Taiping searched Zhu Chen and Ouyang Xuan, took their Gold Essence Coins and treasures, and rejected their offers to pay for their lives.
• Yun Zhong revealed that a mysterious person had offered thirty thousand Gold Essence Coins for Xu Taiping’s life at the Ghost Market.
• Yun Zhong explained that the Poison King Cult’s Holy Maiden had confirmed Xu Taiping’s supposed opportunity in the Thousand Buddha Kingdom, offered another thirty thousand Gold Essence Coins, and hired Blood Hand to kill him.
• Yun Zhong warned Xu Taiping that Blood Hand and his assassins had been waiting in Black-Clothed Town for half a month, with a Gu Insect sent by the Holy Maiden able to detect Xu Taiping’s aura.

Xu Taiping learned that a 60,000 Gold Essence Coin bounty had been placed on him and forced Elder Yun Zhong, Zhu Chen, and Ouyang Xuan to reveal secrets in exchange for their lives. After Xu Taiping left, Yun Zhong planned to use his hidden jade disc to alert Blood Hand and the other assassins, believing they could kill Xu Taiping once his power of all beings are equal stopped working outside the Thousand Buddha Kingdom.

• Xu Taiping learned that the Poison King Cult's Holy Maiden had put a bounty on him because she accused him of harming Demoness Su Su, and Elder Yun Zhong admitted he was one of Blood Hand's recruited assassins.
• Elder Yun Zhong offered to use a communication treasure to reveal the other assassins' plans, and Xu Taiping agreed to spare him if he opened it.
• Xu Taiping offered to release Zhu Chen and Ouyang Xuan if they each revealed a secret about their Sect Master, and the two agreed after Yun Zhong urged them to cooperate.
• After Xu Taiping left, Yun Zhong, Zhu Chen, and Ouyang Xuan discussed how to retaliate, and Yun Zhong said he would use a hidden jade disc to tell Blood Hand that Xu Taiping had taken it.
• Yun Zhong claimed that Xu Taiping's power of all beings are equal would cease to work outside the Thousand Buddha Kingdom, leaving him vulnerable to the assassins.

After escaping the Feather Prison, Zhu Chen, Ouyang Xuan, and Yun Zhong were trapped by Venerable Jiaye’s divine sense and ordered to rebuild the Reclining Buddha Temple. Xu Taiping then discovered through the jade disc that Blood Hand’s group was plotting to lure him into an assassination trap.

• Venerable Jiaye’s divine sense shackled Zhu Chen, Ouyang Xuan, and Yun Zhong and ordered them to rebuild the Reclining Buddha Temple as atonement.
• The jade disc revealed that Blood Hand and six allies were coordinating their plans, and Xu Taiping learned that Huang Que was still alive.
• Black Hound reported poisoning nearby fishing households and turning them into living puppets to lure Xu Taiping into a trap.
• Su Su proposed using Xu Miaoyan, a beautiful Four Symbols Sect disciple seeking revenge for her missing senior brother, to draw Xu Taiping in.
• Blood Hand warned that Xu Taiping was cautious, and Su Su said she had already devised a plan.

Xu Taiping learned that assassins planned to use Xu Miaoyan as bait, then discovered she was the junior sister of the cultivator surnamed Liu and decided to save her. On the Black-Clothed River, Xu Miaoyan’s planned confrontation with the Little Madman instead began with the arrival of a sinister young man who trapped her boat.

• Xu Taiping read the assassins’ plans to lure the Young Master of Seeking Pleasure Valley onto Xu Miaoyan’s boat and use her to bait the Little Madman.
• Xu Taiping decided to capture the assassins and question them about the mysterious person who had put a bounty on him, while also resolving to save Xu Miaoyan.
• Xu Taiping received a message revealing that Xu Miaoyan was the junior sister of the cultivator surnamed Liu, and he chose to save her of his own accord.
• Xu Miaoyan waited on a black-canopied boat on the Black-Clothed River, expecting the Little Madman who had killed her senior brother.
• A sinister young man arrived instead, raised curtains of water around Xu Miaoyan’s boat, and left her in despair.

Xu Taiping rescued Xu Miaoyan from Qi Zhaoyan but demanded her as payment, leaving her convinced he intended to claim her. Across the river, Su Su and Black Hound watched the encounter as assassins recruited by Blood Hand.

• Xu Miaoyan realized Su Su had sold out her hiding place to Qi Zhaoyan, who trapped her aboard the Black Canopy Boat.
• Xu Taiping cut through Qi Zhaoyan's Water Prison and demanded payment for Xu Miaoyan.
• Xu Taiping accepted Qi Zhaoyan's six hundred Gold Essence Coins but refused to let him take Xu Miaoyan.
• Xu Taiping severed Qi Zhaoyan's arm when he tried to activate a talisman, and Qi Zhaoyan fled after unleashing a Storm Talisman.
• Xu Taiping collected the money pouch and told Xu Miaoyan that she belonged to him.
• Su Su and Black Hound observed Xu Taiping from across the river and discussed his greed and cautious lodging choice.

Xu Taiping used his clone to carry out the fishing-family ambush while he tracked the assassins’ plans and learned Blood Hand would only intervene if the others failed. He incapacitated Su Su and Black Hound at the inn, hoping to draw Blood Hand out and uncover the mysterious client’s identity.

• Su Su and Black Hound discussed their plan to poison Xu Taiping and capture or kill him, with Blood Hand acting as backup.
• Xu Taiping listened through a voice-transmitting jade slip as Qing He and the others arranged to poison his bathwater and ambush his clone.
• Xu Taiping decided to capture Su Su and Black Hound first, then use their defeat to draw Blood Hand into the open.
• Xu Taiping entered the inn under his Concealment Cloak and incapacitated Black Hound with Corpse Soul Incense.
• Su Su donned her Reverse Scale Armor but also succumbed to the incense, and Xu Taiping sat the pair down and asked to join their meal.

Xu Taiping used Su Su and Black Hound to confirm Blood Hand had met the Mysterious Man, then his clone entered Xu Miaoyan’s bath to serve as bait for Blood Hand’s allies. As Nan Zhen and the Old Man of the Moon moved to kill the seemingly poisoned clone, Xu Taiping sprang his trap with razor-sharp strands of gang wind.

• Xu Taiping burned Black Hound’s face and got Su Su to confirm that Blood Hand had met the Mysterious Man.
• Xu Taiping saw Blood Hand’s message on the jade disc saying that he and the Old Man of the Moon would attack once the bathing pair fell silent.
• Xu Taiping’s clone entered the bathtub with Xu Miaoyan and pretended to be overcome by poison.
• Nan Zhen and the Old Man of the Moon entered the room, and Xu Miaoyan recognized them as Su Su’s allies and realized the young man was Xu Taiping.
• Nan Zhen drew his saber to behead the clone, but Xu Taiping snapped his fingers and bound Nan Zhen and the Old Man of the Moon in strands of gang wind.