Chapter Summaries

After Gao Cuilan’s innate soul power unexpectedly rose to 8.7, Chen Xiaojun tested Zhu Wuneng to investigate the cause. Zhu Wuneng’s reading had also risen, leaving Chen Xiaojun’s suspicion awaiting confirmation.

• Chen Xiaojun and his companions returned to the Duke's Mansion and ate a late meal, where Zhu Wuneng complained about the food and Chen Mu brought sixth-grade wine to celebrate Chang'an’s tournament results.
• Chen Xiaojun summoned Gao Cuilan and asked her to test her innate soul power with the Super Soul Testing Ball.
• Gao Cuilan’s reading showed 8.7 instead of the 8.2 she remembered, and Chen Xiaojun noted that the increase was larger than martial soul advancement should explain.
• Chen Xiaojun called Zhu Wuneng in to provide another reading for his investigation.
• Zhu Wuneng tested at 12.5, up from the 12.3 he had recorded the previous month.

Chen Xiaojun learned that Zhu Wuneng and Gao Cuilan’s innate soul power had risen after Heavenly Marshal Tianpeng absorbed a mysterious golden sphere, so he postponed Cuilan’s treasure medicine plan. Xiao Yi revealed that she had overcome an inner demon and gained Lesser Siming’s divine skill, Three-Finger Fate Severing.

• Chen Xiaojun explained that Zhu Wuneng’s innate soul power had reached Level 12.5 and Gao Cuilan’s had also increased, likely because of the golden sphere bestowed on Heavenly Marshal Tianpeng.
• Chen Xiaojun told Gao Cuilan to postpone her Ninth-Grade Treasure Medicine plan until they understood whether her soul power could keep rising and what its limits were.
• Zhu Wuneng led Gao Cuilan out of the study, leaving Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi alone.
• Chen Xiaojun asked Xiao Yi why she had slept for so long, and she said she had encountered and resolved an inner demon, absorbing its mental power.
• Xiao Yi revealed that the Orchid Finger was Lesser Siming’s divine skill, the third form of the Great Azure Jade Heavenly Mandate Finger, Three-Finger Fate Severing.
• Xiao Yi recounted how Lesser Siming’s Dharma Form had enlightened her with the divine skill in her sea of consciousness.

Xiao Yi explained how she lit her fate star and began comprehending Three-Finger Fate Severing, revealing that her star was the South Pole Star. Chen Xiaojun connected her power to the South Pole Longevity Great Emperor and the Great Siming to the Northern Pole Purple Star Great Emperor, and the chapter ended with Xiao Yi asking what had happened to him at the D mansion.

• Xiao Yi told Chen Xiaojun that comprehending Three-Finger Fate Severing required lighting her fate star and glimpsing the River of Fate.
• Xiao Yi recounted how the upheaval of the Great Siming cocoon within Chen Xiaojun had guided her through the Fate Star River and helped her find her star.
• Xiao Yi revealed that her fate star was the South Pole Star, and Chen Xiaojun connected her to the South Pole Longevity Great Emperor and Great Siming to the Northern Pole Purple Star Great Emperor.
• Xiao Yi said she had only scratched the surface of Three-Finger Fate Severing and displayed its crimson-gold divine ring, filled with silver stardust and purple haze.
• Xiao Yi withdrew the divine ring and asked Chen Xiaojun what had happened to him at the D mansion.

Chen Xiaojun revealed that the Black-Red Cocoon had given him the Fire Division’s supreme techniques and was eroding his mind, and Xiao Yi explained that this was part of a two-way synchronization leading toward Divine Descent. She described how her own connection with Lesser Siming had formed through their shared origins and the heavenly and earthly phenomena that awakened her memories.

• Chen Xiaojun showed Xiao Yi his Taiji Blood Hand Seals and listed other techniques the Black-Red Cocoon had passed on to him.
• Chen Xiaojun told Xiao Yi that the cocoon was influencing his mentality and resolve, which had prompted his mother Ye Xiuxin to warn him.
• Xiao Yi explained that the deity was synchronizing with Chen Xiaojun, with both his will and the deity’s power influencing one another as they adjusted toward Divine Descent.
• Xiao Yi said her true-spirit origin had been compatible with Lesser Siming from birth, allowing them to complete most of their synchronization before she knew Lesser Siming existed.
• Xiao Yi explained that the twin phenomena Nine Echoes and Reaching for the Moon from the Ninth Heaven awakened her past-life memories and completed her transformation into Donghuang Xiuyi.

Xiao Yi explained that the Yin-Yang School’s pursuit of human-deity unity gave its practitioners divine power but caused severe flaws as backlash. She warned Chen Xiaojun that the Fire Division’s flaw was heartlessness and that his recent coldness showed it was already affecting him.

• Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi discussed how celestial phenomena had completed the synchronization between Xiao Yi and Lesser Siming.
• Xiao Yi explained that the Yin-Yang School’s experts united humans and deities to wield the power of heaven and earth.
• Xiao Yi described how the Metal, Water, and Earth divisions suffered different destructive flaws from their practices.
• Xiao Yi told Chen Xiaojun that the Fire Division’s flaw was losing the ability to empathize through the seven emotions.
• Chen Xiaojun recognized his own coldness and worried that he might eventually stop caring about his family.

Chen Xiaojun learned that the Eight Yin-Yang Curses were created as dangerous ways for Yin-Yang School cultivators to resist the flaws of their inheritances. Xiao Yi explained the Fire Division’s Six-Soul Terror Curse and her own Pure Yang Curse Seal, then warned that the Great Siming’s immense power rested on the isolating effects of heartlessness.

• Xiao Yi explained that the Fire Division’s violent yin-fiend power eroded cultivators’ emotions and that the Six-Soul Terror Curse could counteract this corruption by making negative energies clash within the user.
• Xiao Yi said the Sealing Sleep Curse Seal could suppress runaway negative energy when the Six-Soul Terror Curse failed, while Chen Xiaojun recognized it as the curse’s yang counterpart.
• Xiao Yi explained that the Eight Yin-Yang Curses were methods of self-salvation, and that she had used the Pure Yang Curse Seal to burn away her inner demon and turn its power into mental and divine soul energy.
• Chen Xiaojun recognized the Pure Yang Curse Seal as a variant of Taoism’s Samadhi True Fire, adapted by the Wood Division to cleanse inner demons and absorb their power.
• Xiao Yi told Chen Xiaojun that the Great Siming’s severing of the seven emotions protected him from the vast negative qi he had absorbed and enabled the cold precision of his Sword of War and Eye of Judgment.

Xiao Yi explained that the deities Lesser Siming and Great Siming were reborn as innate beings in this life and deeply connected to their human anchors, which could let them resolve their flaws through a stronger symbiosis. She proposed that she and Chen Xiaojun continue what they had done at the Dou Family to bring the deities’ powers into balance.

• Xiao Yi told Chen Xiaojun that Lesser Siming and Great Siming were fundamentally different in this life because they had been reborn within an Innate Spirit Treasure and fused with the world’s laws.
• Xiao Yi explained that she and Chen Xiaojun were anchors essential to the deities’ existence, so the deities would protect and guide them rather than treat them as replaceable vessels.
• Xiao Yi suggested that the deities’ erosion might be an attempt at attunement and that balancing Great Siming’s power of death with Lesser Siming’s power of life could resolve their flaws.
• Xiao Yi recalled what had happened at the Dou Family and proposed that she and Chen Xiaojun continue it by going to bed together.

Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi joined their powers in bed to explore the resonance between their divine origins. Their exchange intensified as the Black-Red Cocoon absorbed Xiao Yi’s life energy, and the synchronization was still underway when the chapter ended.

• Chen Xiaojun agreed to join Xiao Yi in synchronizing their powers and followed her to the bed in the East Room.
• Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi clasped hands, opened their seas of consciousness, and triggered a violent resonance between the Black-Red Cocoon and Lesser Siming.
• Xiao Yi sensed her life soul power flowing toward Chen Xiaojun as their divine powers mingled and balanced.
• Chen Xiaojun sent the Nethersea Seven Kill Sword’s negative aura into Xiao Yi, and her Immortal Evergreen Vine absorbed and purified it.
• Xiao Yi poured her life soul power into Chen Xiaojun, and the Black-Red Cocoon greedily absorbed it as death and life energies began to transform.

Su Ningxia and Gao Cuilan went to call Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi for drinks, but overheard their intimate exchange inside the study. They left to keep others away and waited for the pair to finish.

• Su Ningxia and Gao Cuilan approached the study to summon Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi.
• Su Ningxia heard sounds through the ajar door, and Gao Cuilan pulled her away before she could enter.
• The women overheard Chen Xiaojun ask whether they should stop and Xiao Yi tell him to keep going.
• Su Ningxia panicked about the impropriety, while Gao Cuilan urged her not to interrupt or reveal what they had heard.
• Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia went to find an excuse for the Fifth Young Master and stayed nearby to keep others from approaching.

Su Ningxia and Gao Cuilan went to summon Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi but heard intimate sounds from the study and realized they were together. They kept everyone away from the door and told the others that Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi would skip the gathering.

• Su Ningxia and Gao Cuilan approached the study to fetch Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi for drinks.
• Su Ningxia heard sounds inside, and Gao Cuilan pulled her away before they overheard Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi refusing to stop.
• Gao Cuilan persuaded Su Ningxia to stay quiet, give the front courtyard an excuse, and prevent anyone else from entering.
• Zhu Wuneng asked why Su Ningxia and Gao Cuilan were flushed, and they blamed the summer heat.
• Gao Cuilan told the gathered guests that Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi would not come, while Chen Shurui and Chen Mu accepted the explanation with knowing remarks.

Chen Zhang confronted Black Tongue over his attempt to leave the Underground City and forced him to choose between joining the Soul Fighting City Alliance or dying. Black Tongue faced the ultimatum in silence, with his fear and desperation finally showing.

• Chen Mu mocked Zhu Wuneng after he compared Chen Mu's charm to Sister Xiao Yi, then dragged him off to drink while Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia hurried away from the sounds in the Backyard.
• At Iron Jaw Fortress, Chen Zhang confirmed that the plain-faced middle-aged man was Black Tongue and asked why Tan Yashuang had brought him.
• Chen Zhang refused to help Black Tongue escape, explaining that the Dragon Court and the Three Ministries had sealed the routes out of the Imperial Capital and that Black Tongue's information made neutrality impossible.
• Chen Zhang gave Black Tongue two choices: surrender his intelligence and serve the Soul Fighting City Alliance, or be branded a criminal and killed.
• Black Tongue went rigid as fear and inner conflict appeared in his eyes, while Tan Yashuang watched and Chen Zhang calmly drank his tea.

Prince Xue Jiqing learned that Azure Bamboo was in the Forgotten Ruin Abyss and ordered the Empire to clear a path before the seven-day deadline. Meanwhile, Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia kept Tao Ruyin from entering the study, then worried over whether they should tell the Matriarch about what they believed was happening inside.

• Prince Xue Jiqing learned from the Chen Clan that Azure Bamboo was in the Forgotten Ruin Abyss, where soul beasts and Underground Forces made the route perilous.
• Prince Xue Jiqing ordered purge units recalled and the great clans and sects notified so they could force a path to the Ruin Abyss and recover the Sword Lord.
• Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia waited outside the study, distracted by the sounds they had heard and the long silence from within.
• Tao Ruyin brought food for the Young Master, but Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia persuaded her not to disturb him and the Miss.
• Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia worried that the Miss might be hurt and debated whether to report the situation to the Matriarch.

Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi’s joined powers awakened the hidden potency of the Yin-Yang Twin Lives Flower, driving their domains and understanding of their respective laws to new heights. As the Taiji Diagram spun faster, their spiritual and divine resonance reached a perilous peak.

• Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi’s soul powers and energies poured into the Black-Red Cocoon as their powers formed a cycle of purification and mutual transformation.
• The Yin-Yang Twin Lives Flower awakened and enveloped Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi in a black-and-white phantom, with each positioned in the Taiji Diagram’s opposing yin-yang eye.
• Chen Xiaojun’s yin-yang domain and sword intents deepened, while Xiao Yi’s five-elements conception and great void domain advanced rapidly.
• The Taiji Diagram accelerated until the pair’s fused spiritual and divine resonance threatened to overwhelm their consciousness.

Lesser Siming’s Dharma Body appeared in Chen Xiaojun’s upper soul nest and used reversed divine skills to nourish the Black-Red Cocoon and mend the heavenly scar caused by his burden of Great Siming’s power. The cocoon began recovering and the scar started to close, though Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi remained unconscious.

• The Yin-Yang Twin Lives Flower and Taiji Diagram vanished after the soul resonance ended, leaving Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi drained and unconscious.
• Lesser Siming’s Dharma Body manifested in Chen Xiaojun’s upper soul nest as her life-nature soul power resonated with the Black-Red Cocoon.
• The Black-Red Cocoon drew in Lesser Siming’s life force, and she reversed Two Fingers Cover All Life to feed it an even purer power.
• Lesser Siming reversed One Finger Severs Yin and Yang and sent a growing Taiji Diagram to press against Chen Xiaojun’s heavenly scar.
• The Taiji Diagram began disentangling and repairing the scar, reducing its size and weakening its unstable fluctuations.

Chen Xiaojun’s Sea of Consciousness transformed as Lesser Siming and the Black-Red Cocoon gave rise to a mysterious merged domain. When the changes ended, Chen Xiaojun awoke beside an unresponsive Xiao Yi, and Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia rushed in after hearing him call for help.

• The Black-Red Cocoon stopped absorbing energy as Lesser Siming’s life-source energy expanded and transformed Chen Xiaojun’s Sea of Consciousness.
• The Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram continued repairing the Heavenly Scar while purple and chaotic gray light formed around Lesser Siming and the cocoon.
• A primordial will awakened within the merged domain, which swallowed Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi before Lesser Siming vanished and the cocoon withdrew into the Sea of Consciousness.
• Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia heard Chen Xiaojun call for Xiao Yi and hurried into the East Room.
• Chen Xiaojun sat beside Xiao Yi, who lay fully dressed but barely breathing and unresponsive.

Chen Xiaojun found that the power of Severing in his heart might have weakened, but Xiao Yi collapsed and began her first Celestial Menstruation, leaving her condition a mystery. The next morning, Ye Xiuxin and Yang Jingxue questioned him, but he refused to reveal the truth without Chen Hong’s permission.

• Chen Xiaojun found Xiao Yi unconscious and ordered Gao Cuilan to fetch Sister Ru Yan.
• Gao Cuilan and Su Ningxia helped cover Xiao Yi while Chen Xiaojun worried over her condition.
• Ye Xiuxin returned to the mansion after Yang Jingxue sent a warning about Xiaojun and Xiao Yi, then confirmed Xiao Yi was breathing weakly.
• Ye Xiuxin ordered the others out and questioned Chen Xiaojun with Yang Jingxue about Xiao Yi’s collapse and first Celestial Menstruation.
• Chen Xiaojun said he could not disclose the matter without Chen Hong’s permission, angering Yang Jingxue.

Chen Hong revealed to Yang Jingxue that the ancient deities Great Siming and Lesser Siming were dwelling symbiotically inside Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi. The revelation bound the Yang Family more closely to the Chen Clan, and Chen Hong added that the gods came from elsewhere.

• Ye Xiuxin urged Yang Jingxue to consult Chen Hong before demanding answers from Chen Xiaojun.
• Yang Jingxue confronted Chen Hong, who warned that learning the Chen Clan's secret would bind their families together, and she swore not to reveal it beyond herself and Lord Cheng Lin.
• Chen Hong confirmed that the being Yang Jingxue had seen at the Chang'an Duke's Mansion was a deity who later split into two forms.
• Chen Hong revealed that Lesser Siming dwelled inside Xiao Yi and Great Siming inside Chen Xiaojun, and explained their divine offices and symbiotic bond with the children.
• Chen Hong explained the Divine Realm's structure and ended by revealing that Great Siming and Lesser Siming were gods from elsewhere.

The Chen Clan met with Clear Sky Sect leaders to explain why it sought cooperation with the Yellow Emperor Tang Family in Lankai Commandery. The meeting ended with Chen Zhang reframing the clan’s actions as cooperation among the Heavenly Soldiers Remnants, leaving Tang Potian speechless.

• Chen Hong, Chen Zhang, and Chen Xiaojun met Tang Yue, Tang Aotian, and Tang Potian at the Jade Hall of Abundance, with Ximen Wenlan and Yang Jingxue attending as witnesses.
• Tang Yue asked what the Chen Clan intended by involving itself in the Yellow Emperor Branch and Lankai Commandery.
• Chen Zhang said the Chen Clan needed skilled craftsmen and wanted to secure Lankai Commandery as a key junction in its logistics network.
• Tang Potian accused the Chen Clan of ignoring its shared history with the Clear Sky Sect and named other forging families that could supply craftsmen.
• Chen Zhang argued that the Yellow Emperor Tang Family belonged to the Heavenly Soldiers Remnants, so cooperating with it upheld their shared ties rather than violated them.

Chen Zhang proposed cooperation with the Clear Sky Sect in Heaven Dou City and Tianshan Commandery rather than in sensitive Lankai, easing the immediate confrontation while leaving room for the Yellow Emperor Tang Family to grow. Chen Xiaojun began explaining why the Clear Sky Sect sought to reunite with that family, but the chapter ended before he finished.

• Tang Aotian challenged Chen Zhang to recognize the Clear Sky Sect Main Line as the legitimate heir of the Mountain-Breaking Hammer lineage, and Chen Zhang declined to judge between it and the Yellow Emperor Tang Family.
• Tang Aotian argued that the Clear Sky Sect could meet the Chen Clan's needs better than the Yellow Emperor Lineage, and Chen Zhang clarified that he was open to cooperation outside Lankai Commandery.
• Chen Zhang proposed deep cooperation with the Clear Sky Sect in Heaven Dou City and Tianshan Commandery, focusing on civilian soul tools, advanced material processing, and specialized equipment outside sensitive fields.
• Chen Zhang asked Chen Xiaojun to explain the Chen Clan's ideas, and Chen Xiaojun said the Yellow Emperor Tang Family's few hundred members would add little to the Clear Sky Sect's existing strength.

Chen Xiaojun proposed six forms of economic and commercial cooperation to persuade the Clear Sky Sect to abandon its plan to merge with the Yellow Emperor Tang Family. He then offered Chen Clan support in seeking compensation from the Heaven Dou Imperial Family, leaving Tang Aotian to question whether the sect could pursue the claim alone.

• Tang Aotian admitted that the Tang Family envied the Chen Clan's concentrated talent and asked Chen Xiaojun how the Clear Sky Sect could grow stronger without merging with the Yellow Emperor Tang Family.
• Chen Xiaojun proposed guaranteed business, mineral and herb purchases, a medicinal herbs market, expanded trade, a logistics hub, and long-term military weapons contracts.
• Chen Xiaojun offered to help the Clear Sky Sect demand compensation from the Heaven Dou Imperial Family for two thousand years of deaths and injuries suffered while guarding against the Snowmen Tribe.
• Tang Aotian argued that the Heaven Dou Empire had granted the Tang Family land in exchange for guarding the passes, but Chen Xiaojun said generations of bloodshed had repaid that favor many times over and had also burdened affiliated soul masters.
• Tang Aotian asked whether the Clear Sky Sect might seek compensation without the Chen Clan, and Chen Xiaojun replied that the sect alone was not enough.